


Obito-Sensei

by Ser_Serendipity



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Politics, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, BAMF Uchiha Obito, Badass Sakura, Being Sakura is Suffering, Blood and Gore, Character Death, Economy of Violence, F/M, Family Feels, For Want of a Nail, Gen, Good Uchiha Obito, Hurt/Comfort, Kakashi is Actually Dead, Smart Uzumaki Naruto, Team as Family, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, unexpected consequences
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:14:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 31
Words: 193,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23465968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ser_Serendipity/pseuds/Ser_Serendipity
Summary: During the fateful mission to the Kannabi Bridge, Obito is too slow, and Kakashi ends up paying the price with his life. Years later, Elite Jonin Mangekyou no Obito is placed in charge of a very familiar genin team, determined to keep them safe in a world at peace.Or:Obito surviving wrecks everything, in twenty steps or less.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata/Uchiha Sasuke, Nohara Rin/Uchiha Obito
Comments: 337
Kudos: 956





	1. Sensei

Introduction

"Team Seven."

Iruka Umino's voice rang clearly through the classroom, and every newly appointed genin in it found themselves sitting up a little straighter. Their teacher was coming to the end of the team selection: anyone left would probably be picked soon.

"Sakura Haruno."

A pink-haired girl sitting in the second farthest back row perked up, looking around. Her brow scrunched as she tried to figure out who her teammates could be. She turned her head, her short hair shifting slightly with the motion as it struggled to escape the hitai-ate keeping it secured behind her head.

Sakura peered at the boy next to her, barely daring to look at him in her peripheral vision. Could she dare to hope-?

"Sasuke Uchiha."

The dark-eyed boy didn't react obviously. He didn't smile, or sigh, or close his eyes. But despite that, his shoulders shifted forward slightly, his clasped hands coming up farther in front of his face. There was a palatable sense of resignation… with a hint of relief.

He stared straight ahead and slightly below him, at the back of the head of the boy sitting in front of him. Then, he let a slight grin appear on his face.

"And Naruto Namikaze."

The Hokage's son turned around and looked straight into Sasuke's eyes. If Sasuke's grin was a glimmer of light crossing his face, then Naruto's was the sun itself.

The blonde wiggled his eyebrows.

"Called it."

###

"You really think that's a good idea?"

The Hokage shifted. "You're the only one I trust to do it."

"I'm flattered, sensei, believe me."

The man addressing the Hokage shifted, idly twisting his collar between two fingers.

He spoke, his voice careful. "But I don't think I'll be able to give everyone on the team enough attention. Sasuke and Naruto are both going to need watching… and the Haruno girl. Her parents are somewhat accomplished, and her teacher's say she really pulled herself together this year… but on a team like that?"

He shook his head. "Someone is going to get the shorter end of the stick."

Minato Namikaze smiled, lighting up the room. "Don't worry about that. I'm gonna be giving Naruto some pointers anyway. A little graduation present."

The man raised an eyebrow. "You're going to teach him that?"

The Hokage shrugged. "He won't stop bugging me. I figure the first time it knocks him on his ass will teach him a little humility."

Team Seven's sensei snorted. "I doubt it. Knowing him, he'll have it down by the end of the month, and then his head will just be even bigger."

Minato laughed. "Probably. But it'll be worth a shot, I think." He grew serious for a moment. "I'm counting on you, you know. Naruto… he's got the Will of Fire, I know it. And he'll lay his life down for his friends the minute he needs to, especially for Sasuke. But…"

The rest of the Hokage's sentence went unsaid, as the blonde stared off into the distance. There was a moment of silence.

"You know that they've been conspiring about Itachi again?" the other man asked, trying to distract his teacher. Minato nodded, his lips set in a flat line.

"Sasuke's become a little… fixated lately," the man continued. "The closer to graduation he's gotten, the more focused he's become."

"He's not ready yet." In contrast to his normal self, the Hokage sounded unusually sober.

The man snorted, making a minute adjustment to his forehead protector to hide his quick tic. "I doubt anyone will be ready for quite a while, sensei. Even you…"

"Would have turned out differently if Kushina hadn't been there," Minato muttered, finally managing to regain his humor.

The other man smiled: he and his teacher had had this discussion too many times to count already, and Minato had always fallen back on that argument.

"Yeah. That's why she was so pissed you didn't go after him," he joked.

The Hokage sighed. "Doesn't matter anymore," he said. "Listen." His voice was now completely serious again. "Someone needs to get Naruto into line. He's got the foundations… but you're the best person to finish the job. And I know for a fact you'll be able to keep Sasuke under control."

"And Sakura?"

"Focus training on her. The other two can manage for now. She's got fantastic chakra control for her age. Work on that: genjutsu, evasion, speed training. I don't doubt you have some tricks to teach her."

"I don't know. Sounds like Shisui would have been better-"

"And he's dead," the Hokage cut him off. "You're the best option."

"I don't like that."

"Get used to it."

The office was silent once more.

Finally, the other man sighed. "Alright. But someone is going to regret this."

Minato smiled. "Maybe. But it'll certainly be fun to watch."

The man chuckled.

###

"So who do you think'll be our sensei?" Naruto was sitting on top of one of the lecture tables, his legs tucked slightly in and his arms cast over them. He idly scratched his nose with one hand.

Sasuke shrugged. "Asuma, maybe?" He didn't sound like he was very interested in the conversation, leaning against the window and looking out over the village, but Naruto knew that if he wasn't interested, then he wouldn't participate in the first place.

That was how Sasuke approached everything: directly.

"What? The old man's son?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe," Sasuke shrugged. "He's a Sarutobi, so he's probably got fire jutsu. But he's also got a wind affinity, so he could help you out. And he's a Hokage's son: I bet your dad would find that pretty funny."

Naruto pulled a face.

Sakura just watched the conversation, afraid to step in. She wasn't sure if she was apprehensive or ecstatic.

Mostly, she was quiet.

Being on a team with Sasuke had been her dream ever since she'd first met him, all those years ago. He was handsome, respectful, and polite.

And though there was a kind of coldness in him, a suppressed sense of ambivalence to what happened around him, it just made him more appealing.

But Sakura was barely thirteen: she didn't really understand why that was.

Naruto, on the other hand… Sakura was somewhat intimidated by him.

The son of Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, and Kushina Uzumaki, one of Konoha's most famous kunoichi.

He was brash and loud. He was also rather dumb, at least when it came to tests. His taijutsu was average, but not as impressive as Sasuke's. The same could be said for his ninjutsu.

He'd barely managed to scrape together a successful clone jutsu for the test. His chakra control was fairly abysmal.

But Naruto was the Hokage's son, and people said that he had been learning from his parents as soon as he could walk. He may have been book-dumb, but she had heard that he already knew the basics of fuinjutsu, something that Sakura had no working knowledge of.

And he learned quickly. Sakura knew for a fact that he hadn't been able to use a basic bunshin two weeks ago. He'd only learned it for the test.

"What do you think, Sakura?" Naruto turned to her, and she blinked and straightened up from her thinking pose.

"What?" she asked, and then winced. "Sorry. I wasn't listening."

"Who do you think our sensei's gonna be?" Naruto asked patiently, staring at her. She didn't understand why he did that. Maybe he was looking at her forehead. Ino said tying her hair behind her head would make her look more like a ninja, but maybe she was just trying to sabotage her? But why would she-

"Sakura?" Naruto asked, puzzled. "You okay?"

Sakura shook her head, trying to clear it. "Yeah. Uhh…" she bit her lip.

Unlike Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura didn't know many of the jonin who took students on after they were assigned teams. The only one she did personally was-

"Maybe Kurenai-sensei?" she suggested. The red-eyed woman was friends with her parents: she'd even taught Sakura a very basic jutsu for hiding blemishes a year or so earlier.

Naruto looked thoughtful. "Maybe," he said. He gestured to Sasuke. "She could help Sasuke out with his Sharingan." He laughed. "And everyone knows I couldn't use genjutsu if my life depended on it."

"Sakura has good chakra control," Sasuke quietly suggested. "Kurenai would be a good match for her."

Sakura blushed and lowered her head, secretly pleased that Sasuke had noticed anything about her.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I dunno, though. Who knows who we'll end up getting stuck with? It might even be-"

The room was filled with a bizarre noise. It sounded like water running over electrified stones, or a generator in the midst of heating up being dropped down an elevator shaft.

Sakura stood up, staring around, trying to locate the source.

Naruto's eyes went wide.

Sasuke closed his, bringing one hand up towards his face.

A hole opened in reality: a dark void, about the size of an eye, in the center of the room.

A man swirled out of it.

He wasn't very tall: only about five-foot seven. He wore a dark blue bodysuit, with a standard jonin flak jacket over it. There was an impressively straight scar starting just below his left eye, running just past his mouth and under his chin.

He wore steel armguards, plain of ornamentation and covered in minute scratches and dents. There was a small sheathed blade sitting on the small of his back, set horizontally. His hitai-ate, tied around his forehead, was affixed to an orange cloth.

"Obito," Naruto finished, looking somewhere between constipated and excited.

Obito Uchiha stared at his teacher's son, the next prodigy of his clan, and a kunoichi in training who was probably going to spend the next couple months far out of her league.

He raised two fingers to his forehead, bumping them against his hitai-ate.

"Yo."


	2. The Death of Kakashi Hatake

One Misstep

"I see."

Obito spun around, watching the injured Iwa-nin rise from the ground. Kakashi turned with him, minutely wincing as another spike of pain from his destroyed eye struck him.

Apparently, Kakashi's strike hadn't killed the man: his vest had stopped most of the blow from getting through. He staggered to his feet, still speaking.

"You two make a good team… but you're still just kids." The man smirked, blood leaking from the slash in his vest. "And right now, you're right where I want you." He began to steadily run through hand-signs.

Obito's eyes went wide: he instinctively reached back and grabbed Rin's hand. Kakashi actually spared a moment to roll his remaining eye.

"Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi!" the man declared, slamming his hand onto the stone floor of the artificial dome of boulders.

There was a rumbling that Obito felt in his bones, and the ceiling shuddered. A single stone slipped from the press of rocks, dust and powder coming with it.

A moment later, dozens of stones began to follow it.

The Stone shinobi turned and ran.

"Go!" Kakashi yelled, taking off into a pained sprint. "Get to the exit! The whole thing is coming down!"

Obito and Rin broke into a dead run, pulling level with their teammate as the dome shattered and dust filled the air.

The din was incredible. Obito had never heard something so loud in his life. It was if the earth itself was roaring in rage, doing its best to crush them under tons of stone and rubble. Pebbles bounced off his head: they stung terribly, but he couldn't afford to slow down, or to shield himself. He focused everything on pumping his arms, increasing his speed.

Rin was doing the same, as was Kakashi.

Then, Obito looked up, and the world changed forever.

A stone fell from the ceiling, headed right for Kakashi's head. If it fell without interruption, it would smash into the silver-haired boy, sending him to the floor in a dazed heap. He would be vulnerable to the rest of the sizable boulders raining down.

To Obito, with his Sharingan, the rock seemed to descend in slow motion. He could see ever detail of it perfectly: every fissure, crack, the pattern of dust on the underside.

His decision about his course of action was far quicker than the stone.

He lunged forward, trying to divert the rock from Kakashi's head. He succeeded: it struck his left arm with a sickening crunch, and white fire filled that side of his body.

Rin snapped her head towards him, her expression horrified, and Obito spared her a shaky grin. The stone hadn't hit Kakashi in the head, so Obito considered it a victory, even if he was positive he'd just broken his arm.

Unfortunately, the pain of his new injury, plus the distraction of Rin's eyes, made Obito trip right over his own feet as a smaller stone struck him in the ankle.

He hit the floor hard and bounced, sending another tidal wave of boiling agony racing down his arm.

Obito screamed. He couldn't help himself.

Kakashi turned, his remaining eye wide. If Obito's vision hadn't been blurred from the pain in his arm, he would have seen Kakashi dart his eye upwards for a moment before he rushed forward.

The jonin seized Obito by his unbroken arm, and heaved him backwards, towards Rin. The Uchiha spun in midair, facing back towards Kakashi.

This time, no matter how acutely the Sharingan rendered the scene, there was nothing he could do but scream in horror as he saw the massive boulder that had been about to fall on him slam Kakashi to the ground.

The impact was thunderous: the remains of the dome shook, and gravel and dust filled the air, blinding both Obito and Rin.

He yelled, unwilling to believe what he had just seen. Rin echoed his cry.

"Kakashi!"

He hit the ground, and the pain in his arm exploded.

Obito blacked out.

* * *

He came to suddenly; one moment he was unconscious, the next, fully aware.

Obito almost wished he wasn't. His arm felt horrific: like someone had jammed a bundle of kunai inside it, and then tossed him off the Hokage monument for good measure.

He hissed, doing his best not to jostle it as he slowly pulled himself up. He cast his eyes around, the Sharingan whirling. Where was Rin? And-

Kakashi!

He spun about frantically, trying to locate his teammate. Even with his new eyes, he could barely see through all the debris.

Where had Kakashi fallen? Or Rin? He couldn't find them anywhere.

"Obito."

He heard the muffled gasp to his left, and jerked towards it, eyes wide. He staggered forward, gritting his teeth and ignoring the pain in his arm.

There was a pile of smaller stones, each only about the size of his hand. The voice had come from it.

He reached it and bent down, his functional arm slowly moving forward. It was trembling. Obito grasped one of the stones on top of the pile, and slowly pulled it off.

Rin's chocolate brown eyes stared up at him, a trail of blood running between them.

He yelped, and began scrabbling at the stones, pulling more and more of them off his teammate. After a couple seconds, her form became clear: hunched over, and shaking. The stones had formed a sort of cairn around her: aside from a multitude of bruises and a nasty cut on her scalp, she didn't look seriously hurt.

"Rin?" Obito whispered. She didn't look away from him. Her breath was coming too quickly; she was hyperventilating.

"Obito?" she asked. "You… you're… her gaze shifted to his side. "Your arm!" She stumbled forward, falling to her knees. Obito bent down, unsure of what to do. He settled for grabbing her hand.

"Rin. It's fine. I'm okay. It's not as…" He looked over, and gulped. His left arm hung limply, a shard of bone sticking out of the elbow.

He couldn't feel it at all. He was pretty sure that wasn't good.

Obito's mouth was suddenly dry, but he tried to not let it show. "It's not as bad as it looks," he finished, doing his best to grin.

Rin just stared up at him in disbelief. He heard a stone shift in the distance: the fragile balance the stones had achieved would likely be short-lived.

"Rin," he said again. "Where's-"

"Kakashi!" she suddenly said, scrambling to her feet. "Where is he? where- he… there was a rock-!"

"I know," Obito said. "I've been looking for him. But-"

"Obito." The croak echoed throughout the collapsed cave. "Rin?"

Obito and Rin both turned towards the voice. "Kakashi?" Rin gasped.

They both limped towards the sound of their teammate. A stone towered over them, blocking their path. They walked around it, Obito desperately trying to suppress the agony in his arm.

They found Kakashi on the other side, sprawled out on the floor, facing up towards the ceiling.

His abdomen, and everything below it, was pinned beneath the boulder. Blood spread in a steadily widening pool around him.

He stared up at Obito with a dark, clear eye. Obito stared back, horrified.

Rin fell to her knees at his side, her hands clamping over her mouth. Tears leaked from her eyes.

"Good. You're okay," the other boy whispered. Obito's legs failed him. He joined Rin on his knees, clutching his broken arm to keep it from moving.

"Kakashi-!" Rin hiccupped, unable to finish her sentence. The Hatake moved his oddly lucid eye to her.

He smiled.

"Don't worry, Rin. There's nothing you can do. I can't even feel a thing down there." He vaguely gestured to his lower body, the movement of his arms halting and feeble. They barely got off the ground. "It's totally crushed. At this point, all I can do is wait for the shock to finish me off."

"Don't talk like that!" Obito hissed. "We're gonna get you out of here! There's no way a _rock_ like this is gonna-"

He choked, his words catching in his rapidly clenching throat. Kakashi just watched him with one calm eye.

"Sorry, Obito. But… this is the end for me." He closed his eye, but his breathing remained, though it grew more and more unsteady.

His teammates just watched, mute. Tears began to leak from Obito's eyes as well.

"No…" he shook his head, his voice steadily growing louder. "No, no, no… it wasn't supposed to go like this. You're the captain, the jonin. You're the one who's supposed to go become the big war hero."

He lurched to his feet. "You can't do this, Kakashi! I'm just the dead last! The worst Uchiha! You can't just leave-!"

Obito shut his eyes tightly. "Please," he whispered. "Please, don't die."

"I don't have a choice, Obito," Kakashi said, every word a struggle. Obito made a desperate noise, but Kakashi cut him off. "And besides… you've got your Sharingan now… with that you can-"

"I was going to use it to help our teamwork!" Obito yelled. "I can't if you're _dead_ , huh!? Kakashi-!"

"Obito."

Rin's quiet voice snapped the Uchiha out of his indignation. Her tears had ceased, and she watched him with dark but firm eyes.

He stared at her, and then back at Kakashi. What was he doing? His teammate, his _friend,_ was dying… and he was spending their last minutes together yelling at him.

He bent back down, watching his team leader the whole time. Both of his arms were limp at his side. He couldn't stop his tears, like Rin had.

She reached out, and took Kakashi's hand in her own. Obito hesitated, before mirroring the movement with Kakashi's other hand.

They were silent for a moment. Kakashi weakly squeezed Obito's hand: Obito returned the favor.

"I'm glad, you know," the Hatake said. "That I'm dying like this."

Neither of his teammates tried to interrupt him.

"I understand my father's choices now, I think. Doing anything for his team… even giving his life…"

Kakashi was silent for a moment. Obito stilled, worrying that he might have died. The fear was unfound.

Kakashi sighed. "Rin… I'm sorry."

The brown-haired girl sucked in a breath, before nodding, a small, sad smile on her face.

And then… "Obito."

"Y-yeah?" Obito said, trying not to sniffle.

He could _hear_ Kakashi trying not to smile. Bastard.

"Three… things to tell you." The jōnin's voice was fading fast.

"I'm listening, Kakashi," Obito promised. He wouldn't forget what his friend said to him for the rest of his life.

"You and Rin… look out for each other. You are… my team. I don't want anything to happen to you." Kakashi's mask was beginning to dampen: he was bleeding into it through his mouth. "Protect each other."

Obito nodded frantically, his lips set in a determined line.

"Second… you may not have… gotten me a gift…" Obito stiffened, while Kakashi continued, "but I have one for you. Take… my sword."

Kakashi gasped, having more and more difficulty making his words clear. His voice was barely above a whisper. "It was my father's… I don't want it to just… lie in here with me. Get… some of those guys, will you?"

Obito couldn't bring himself to say anything. Rin did for him. "Of course, Kakashi," she said gently, squeezing his hand again.

"Last… thing," Kakashi said. Obito had to bend in close, straining to hear him. "Obito. I know… you can do it. You'll become… the greatest of the Uchiha… the greatest ninja in Konoha." Kakashi's eye opened, but it didn't see anything.

"I _know it_."

And then he went slack, his eye slumping closed once more, and his grip on Obito's and Rin's hands fell away.

Kakashi Hatake was dead.

Obito stared at the body. Rin closed her eyes, rocking back and forth and maintaining her grip on Kakashi's hand.

The Uchiha took a deep, shuddering breath.

His eyes caught fire.

Not literally, fortunately. But the agonizing, steady _burn_ in them emerged from nowhere, and he blinked, too stunned to care that it felt like his eyes were melting.

He gave out a pained grunt, not looking away from Kakashi's sallow face. Rin opened her eyes and looked up at him.

She gasped.

"Obito! Your eyes-!"

"Wha-" Obito raised his arm to his face, trying to scrub away his tears. He could feel them: his cheeks were getting wetter and wetter.

His arm came back down smeared with blood.

His eyes were bleeding. Both of them, sending trails of thick, sticky blood sliding down his cheeks.

Obito stared at the blood on his arm in astonishment. He raised his hand, pressing around his face, feeling the blood.

His eyes kept burning. But it no longer felt like molten copper was circulating throughout his head, filling it with fire. Instead, the flames had become a solid buzzing, warming his head. It felt like the Sharingan, but… heavier. More cloying.

It felt good.

Obito bent forward, undoing the clasp on Kakashi's short blade. He pulled it from the dead boy's back, before tossing the sheath aside and carrying just the blade. He slowly stood up, his legs trembling. Rin watched him with wide eyes.

"Where are you going?" she asked. "Obito-"

"I'm going to go get that bastard," Obito hissed. "He's the one who did this to Kakashi. I'm going to make him pay."

"Obito, you can't!" Rin said. "Your arm, your eyes… just wait for sensei! Please!"

Obito shook his head. "He'll take too long. And there are gonna be more of them. I have to do this now." He turned around, but Rin reached out and grabbed his arm, not rising from her knees.

"At least let me help your arm," she said, looking at him with imploring eyes.

Obito looked at her, his Sharingan still. He swallowed, unable to keep the fear swallowing him up out of his voice.

"Okay."

Rin rose and bent forward, running her glowing green hands over Obito's arm. He shivered at the sensation.

She bit her lip. "Okay," she said steadily. "I've set the bone. But you won't be able to use it."

Obito smiled grimly. "I won't need it." He turned and strode towards where light peeked through the shattered dome of stone, headed for the outside world. "Stay with Kakashi! Protect his body."

"Obito…"

He stopped for the last time, not turning around.

"Please come back."

He nodded, and left the tomb.

* * *

"So you're still alive, huh?"

Obito didn't respond to the bushy haired ninja staring up at him with an amused glint in his eyes. He just glared back, his broken arm rigid at his side, his grip on Kakashi's tanto turning his fingers white.

He stood on top of the former dome: it had been reduced to so much piled rubble. He'd managed to worm his way to the top of it, only to find his teammates murderer sitting at the base, sipping from a canteen.

Obito's arm was still unusable: hand-signs were out of the question. All he had was his new sword, and his new eyes.

The Stone jōnin shook his head. "How stubborn. But it doesn't matter. You're still just a kid." He smiled. "And crying, too. Tears of blood… how dramatic."

Obito shifted a foot back, raising his sword. The ninja from Stone cocked his head, twin steel blades sliding from his forearm wrappings.

"C'mon then, brat. Let's finish this."

Obito didn't attack. Not right away. Instead, he continued to glare, his Sharingan, and the tomoe in it, whirling rapidly. Faster.

Faster.

They began to spiral inward, meeting at the pupil. The rotation began to slow, then reverse: but as the tomoe pulled away, they seemed to pull the pupil with them, into their rotation.

A three-point figure formed: a triangle without sides, with dashes of black moving from each point, like the tail of a comet. The pupil became a red dot at the center of the design.

The Iwa jonin, a man named Kakkō who delighted in simple things like torture, murder, and burying men alive, blinked. _'His eyes… that's no ordinary Sharingan.'_

Obito spoke quietly. His voice was cold, and it trembled.

"You killed my friend."

He blinked heavily, and the new Sharingan design began to spiral about again.

"You killed Kakashi!" Obito roared.

And then he leapt off the stone tomb, sword held high.

Kakkō smirked, and raised his blades to meet him.

To Obito, the man seemed to be moving in slow motion. He could see his every movement. He could see what he _intended_ to do, before he did it.

He looked so… clumsy. Like he was flailing underwater.

So this was the power of the Sharingan. No wonder his clan could be so arrogant.

Obito watched the man's swords come up. If he simply went on falling, he would be impaled.

He couldn't let that happen. If he died here, then so would Rin.

And Rin _would not die_.

Obito's arm shot out, and he flung his tanto at the man, sending it end over end.

Kakkō's eyes widened, and he altered the path of his blades, crossing them in front of his chest. The former sword of the White Fang crashed into it, and was deflected into the soil.

Obito landed on the still crossed blades a moment later, the steel digging into but not cutting through his thick sandals. Chakra kept his balance steady for the one second that the Iwa ninja had to look at the child perched on his crossed blades.

On any other day, Obito would have considered his expression hilarious. But today, all he felt was dreadfully cold anger.

The Uchiha punched the man in the face. Hard.

Kakkō slid back, his face bloodied. Obito fell to the ground, landing painfully on his tailbone and gritting his teeth. He rolled backwards, his hand grasping for his new sword, and came back to his feet with it in hand.

"Nggh." The jōnin spat out a bloodied tooth. "What the hell was-"

Obito charged him. He was done talking.

The tanto came around, trailing silver chakra, and suddenly Kakkō was too busy desperately defending himself.

Steel clanged on steel as Obito pushed the older ninja back across the clearing. His recently broken arm hung slack at his side, but he didn't need it: the Sharingan allowed him to redirect the other man's strikes before they even happened.

Two blades flashed out in a desperate uppercut, trying to knock Obito's guard up, but the Uchiha didn't attempt to meet the strike.

Instead, he dropped his sword and spun back.

Kakkō stared as Obito's blade fell between his two extended ones, both of them missing it and its owner completely. He had overextended himself: there was too much power behind his swing. Both of his arms were up, leaving his body open.

Obito finished his spin. His hand darted out and caught the tanto as it fell.

He pushed forward, and buried it up to its hilt in the jōnin's chest.

The Iwa-nin stumbled back, dragging the tanto from Obito's hand. He stared at the smaller boy in astonishment. Obito looked back fearlessly.

The man chuckled. "Heh. Figures…" Blood splashed across his jacket and chin as he spoke, pouring from his mouth. "All I put up with… and a little punk like you offs me."

He sank to his knees. Obito walked towards him, wary, but the dying jonin made no move.

He grabbed the handle of the tanto.

"Jokes on the you, though," the man said, and Obito looked at him dispassionately.

"I'm not _alone_."

Obito's Sharingan widened, and he yanked the sword from the man's chest, spinning to the left.

He was too slow.

A foot hammered into his broken arm, and he flew back, bouncing along the grass. A broken scream of pain tore itself out of him.

He slid to a stop and stared back at where he'd come from. His arm flared in agony, and his vision blurred, but that didn't matter.

Iwa ninja filled the field. There were more than a dozen of them, all tall, heavy-set men. Some were twice Obito's height, and all of them were certainly heavier. They wore standard flak-vests, denoting them as chunin. They had probably been the jonin's subordinates.

And they were all staring at him, with hate filled eyes.

"Kakkō-taichou!" One of the younger men was shaking the jonin that Obito had stabbed, trying to slow the bleeding from the sizable wound in his chest.

He was failing. But the slender man didn't seem to care. He was watching Obito with a spiteful smile.

He spoke up, and all of the Stone ninja shifted as they listened to him.

"Listen up!" he rasped. "That brat's killed me! But he's got something we need! Forget the information!" He leveled a finger at Obito, who shook as another flash of agony shot up his arm, making his heart jump a beat.

"He's got a fully-formed Sharingan! Take it, and the village will owe you a debt!" He smiled fully, revealing his bloodstained teeth, and then sank back, falling to the ground.

Obito knew that the man was dead, or would be in a moment.

And that he would probably soon be joining him soon.

The Iwa-nin roared together, and charged.

Obito watched them approach with whirling eyes, his grip tightening once more on his tanto.

He took a deep breath.

The first ninja to reach Obito had a snarl on his face and a kunai clenched in each of his fists: he swept them in towards the boy's chest, attempting to gut him. The smaller Uchiha didn't give him a chance. The tanto swept out, knocking one of the kunai off course, and he spun between the man guard, putting his back to him.

The man made to grab him, but the tanto was already shooting back, burying itself in his gut. The taller ninja grunted in pain… and then fell as Obito ripped the sword upwards, opening a wound across the whole of the man's abdomen.

Something slippery fell from the man, who keeled over. Obito didn't spare him a glance. There were still over a dozen ninja surrounding him.

The next attack came more quickly: one man from in front of him, and another to his side.

The one approaching from the front jumped into a roundhouse kick. Obito ducked it, swinging his tanto up to take off the Iwa-nin's foot. But a trio of shuriken, thrown by the man to his side, leapt into his peripheral vision, and he twisted, interpreting the tanto between him and them.

The new angle gave him just enough time to realize that another enemy was approaching him from behind before the man tackled him to the ground.

For the third time that day, Obito hit the ground like a sack of bricks. He tried to roll away, but the enemy ninja had him pinned.

The man loomed over him, a tanto of his own held in his hand. Obito made to raise his… and someone stomped down on his hand, hard.

The feeling of his fingers breaking was barely worse than the _sound_ they made as they did.

The White Fang's sword fell from his ruined fingers. Obito glared up at the man on top of him, who leered down.

"Nice try, kid. But there was no way this would go any other way!" he growled, swinging the blade down. Obito snarled.

Time stopped.

Obito watched his death coming for his throat, a foot and a half of dirtied steel.

His death, and Rin's death.

These men had killed Kakashi. These men were about to kill him.

And then they would kill Rin.

Kill Rin.

_Kill Rin._

His eyes went wide; the Sharingan was whirling so fast the three points seemed to form on continuous circle. Obito's left eye strained: a trickle of blood ran from it, down the side of his face.

The tanto disappeared.

The man swiped his empty hand across Obito's throat, and then suddenly stopped. He stared in astonishment at where his blade had been a second ago, and then at the boy under him.

"Wuh?"

Obito kicked him in the back of the head. He toppled forward, and the young Uchiha surged forward, breaking the older man's nose with a headbutt.

The Iwa-nin reeled back, and Obito scrambled back to his feet.

His eyes burned...

But it was _good_.

He bared his teeth, his lips pulling back into something that by no means could be called a smile. The blood on his face began to dry.

Even with both of his hands useless, even with his head burning... he felt _invincible_.

"C'mon!" he yelled to the rest of the Stone ninja, who were watching him. A couple of them looked confused, the rest, just angry.

But no matter how they looked, they all obliged him, rushing in.

Obito _moved_. Two men found themselves with concussions before they could blink: the small Uchiha leapt from one to the others head, flooring them with bone-shattering kicks.

A man jumped high into the air, falling like a meteor armed with a sword, and Obito glanced up at him.

His eye bled again.

The Iwa-nin's katana vanished, and he had just enough time to look enraged before Obito nailed him in the chin with a powerful kick, snapping his head up. The man hit the ground limply; dead or unconscious, Obito didn't care.

"Enough!" Obito heard the yell behind him and spun, sweeping a leg low. He turned just in time to find a kunai inches from his forehead.

_'No!'_

His right eye quivered. A drop of blood leaked from it.

The kunai hit him in the forehead.

And went straight through.

A man behind Obito screamed briefly as the knife struck him in the throat. He gurgled as he fell, scrabbling at the weapons hilt.

Obito didn't give himself any time to wonder what had allowed him to escape an impromptu lobotomy. Nor did he give any of the other ninja any time to figure out what the hell they had just seen.

He rushed forward. His eyes tingled, and the tanto that had disappeared less than a minute earlier fell into existence right in front of his face.

He caught it in his teeth.

The man he was rushing, who had thrown the kunai, stumbled back, eyes wide.

Obito leapt on top of him, bearing him to the ground under his knees, and drove the tanto up to its hilt into the man jaw, and out through the top of his head.

Blood splattered across Obito's face, mingling with what had come from his eyes, but he ignored its warmth.

The rest of the Iwa-nin watched, horrified, as he rose from the body of the man he had just killed. Bending slightly, he took a kunai from the man's pouch: his broken fingers were barely able to lift it, but he ignored their protests.

He turned his head to the side and opened a pouch on his shoulder with his teeth. A spool of ninja wire lay within, and he bit down on it and teased it out.

"What are you just standing around for?" one of the older looking men yelled as Obito raised his broken hand to his face, the knife clutched in it. "Kill him!"

Kunai, senbon, shuriken, and several more esoteric weapons appeared in the hands of the Stone shinobi. They all threw them at the same unspoken moment.

Obito ignored them.

The rain of steel and needles passed through him, not even ruffling his clothes with their passing. Many of the Iwa-nin had to dive out of the way of their comrades weapons: one took a shuriken to the knee, another a kunai through the hand.

Obito began tying the ninja wire around his hands with his teeth, securing the kunai there. As the Iwa-nin watched in astonishment and fear, he finished. His right hand came back down: the kunai was affixed to it, held in place by the wire wrapped around his fingers.

"What the hell are you?" the one whose hand had been impaled by a kunai said.

Obito glared at him, and the man's head twisted out of existence. He didn't have time to scream before it vanished, and his body fell to the soil, copiously spurting blood from his empty neck.

More liquid trickled from the Uchiha's left eye, but he paid it no mind.

Every single man present took several steps back. One turned and ran.

"What am I?" Obito asked, casting more glares around. None of them were as lethal as the last one had been.

"I am the least of the Uchiha. I'm Obito." He raised his hand, and the kunai with it. "I'm the Yellow Flash's student."

There was a hissed exclamation from the same man who had ordered the projectile barrage moments before, and most of the shinobi shared meaningful looks. Two men dropped their weapons, their fingers unable to hold them.

Obito took a step forward. All of the other ninja took another step back.

"And I am your death!"

He charged.

* * *

Rin sat on the ground, watching Kakashi's body. She stroked his head, running her fingers through his hair, and looked out towards the entrance of the dome.

She hadn't heard anything since Obito had left, aside from some brief yelling.

She had no idea what was happening outside.

But it had been more than ten minutes, and she was starting to think that Obito wouldn't be coming back.

She wasn't crying. She had resolved not to.

But that didn't stop the occasional quiver of her lips, or the palpitation of her heartbeat.

She'd lost both of her teammates in the same day: to the same man.

And now, they were going to fail their mission, and more Konoha shinobi would die because of their own deaths.

The sheer _unfairness_ of the situation made her clench her hand. She stopped when she realized what it was doing to Kakashi's hair.

She moved her hand to her knees… and then stood up.

If she was going to die, she wanted to see Obito one last time before she did. And he might still be out there.

She turned, before looking back at Kakashi's body. Rin sucked in a breath and whipped her head back around, closing her eyes tightly.

Then, there was a near silent rush of air from behind her.

She turned back around, and found Minato Namikaze standing there. He stared at her, and then down at the body of his other student.

Rin gasped. Minato just closed his eyes.

"Oh… Kakashi…" he whispered, bending down to check the silver haired body.

"Sensei?" the girl murmured, stepping closer to him.

He looked at her, and his face grew alarmed. He stepped forward, drawing her in.

"I'm here. I'm here, Rin," he said. She looked up at him, unbelieving.

The Yellow Flash smiled: somehow, he made it look genuine. "It's okay."

Rin burst into tears. He just wrapped his arms tighter around her.

"Sensei!" she cried.

"I know. Rin, I know. But please: where's Obito?" His voice was… dull. Minato normally sounded carelessly cheerful: today was not a normal day.

Rin just shook her head. Minato grabbed her shoulder, and bent down to her level.

"Rin? Where is he?" he said patiently, looking into her eyes.

"He's gone too!" she burst out, gesturing wildly to the exit. "He left to fight the men who killed Kakashi! But he hasn't come back!" She fell backwards, but Minato kept her from hitting the ground.

Rin kept talking. "And he had a broken arm and his eyes were bleeding and he was such-an-idiot-and-now-cause-I-didn't-stop-him-he's-probably-DEAD!" she babbled, barely able to speak past her tears.

Minato looked stricken. Rin tore herself out of his grip and stumbled to the floor, holding her head in her hands.

"Rin…" he said again, but he didn't seem to know what to follow it with.

For a moment, the tomb was silent. Only Rin's weeping disturbed the quiet.

For a moment.

"Rin?!"

The girl in questions head snapped up, her tears instantly ceasing. Minato stared as well, his eyes wide.

Obito Uchiha stumbled into the shattered dome, covered head to toe in bright, fresh blood. His eyes were the same color, the Sharingan scanning everything.

A broken kunai was wound to his right hand, the fingers of which were mangled, by steel wire. His left arm hung completely limply, twisted in a manner that was wholly unnatural.

He found his sensei first. A small smile broke out on his face, and he fell to his knees. Slowly, his eyes fell upon Rin, who stared back, mute.

Obito sighed in relief. "You're okay…" he muttered.

And then he collapsed, unconscious before he hit the floor.


	3. The Bell Test

Trust

Sakura hit the ground hard. Her whole head jolted, and the world grew a bit darker.

Her teeth ached. She was pretty sure her ankle was broken.

She was only "pretty sure" because while there was a nauseating flare of pain, there _wasn't_ the distinctive crack of bone.

She managed to scramble to her feet, doing her best to ignore her aching back and throbbing arm. She could move: that meant that it wasn't broken: probably just sprained. Sprinting on it merely sent jolts of lightning up her leg, instead of filling the limb with cold fire.

She hurtled through the forest, ignoring the pain that came with every step.

Where was he?

There was a rustling sound, and she jumped sideways, sure that he was back, that he was flinging himself towards her. At any moment-

It was just a twig. A twig had fallen from her hair. Nothing.

Nothing to worry about...

She didn't know where her sensei was anymore. She'd lost him after the last brief exchange: he'd melted back into the leaves, and now she was apparently alone again.

But that wasn't true, of course.

Obito was out there somewhere, watching, waiting, and she had to get as far away from here as possible before he decided that he'd had enough of it and came after her again.

How long had it been? Five minutes? Ten?

How much longer was this going to last? Or was it ever going to end at all?

Her hand tightened around the bells in her left hand, feeling the now-warm metal reassuringly press into her palm. She'd kept them in her pouch until Obito had cut it off: now, she was forced to carry them.

But at least they were all still there: she still had a chance.

Unless Obito had been lying.

Sakura stopped.

No! Don't stop. She took off once more, fighting the shaking that wracked her body. Stopping would be a bad idea. If she stopped, Obito would find her that much sooner.

She kept running. But she couldn't stop the thoughts that her first one had unleashed.

What if Obito had been lying? Had they ever really had a chance at being genin?

He'd been after them relentlessly. Merciless and cold.

That wasn't _right_.

Had this even been the real test? Was this whole charade-

Her increasingly desperate and terrified thoughts were interrupted when she ran into something tall and unyielding and fell back, yelping in surprise and pain.

Sakura hit the grass and sprawled, stunned. Had that been a wall? Whose idea was it to put a wall in the middle of the forest?

She finally looked up, and her eyes went wide. The trembling that had plagued her intensified.

' _Oh no.'_

Obito stood over her, staring down with a complete lack of interest. His eyes were blank onyx, the Sharingan deactivated. His face was slack: there didn't seem to be a hint of life to him.

" _No no no no-'_

Sakura scrambled backwards, before her hand bumped something.

She turned her head.

Sasuke was lying insensible on the ground behind her, his clothes rumpled and his face marred by an obvious bruise shaped like her sensei's shoe.

Sakura didn't shriek. But only because she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.

She whipped her head back around, the movement of a startled animal. Obito began slowly walking forward, his stride unhurried.

Sakura just watched him.

What could she do? She was just one genin.

' _Not even a genin yet, probably never will be.'_

What could she do against one of the elite of the village?

Obito finally reached her and bent down, his knees sliding gracefully into a squat so his dead eyes lined up with hers. Sakura pressed herself farther back into Sasuke's unconscious body, hoping against hope that he would wake up and defend her.

She couldn't do this. She wasn't special. Why was she here? Why was _he_ doing this?

 _He_ chose that moment to speak.

"Sakura," he said quietly, looking into her eyes without actually _looking_. "Give them up."

He extended one hand slowly, palm open and upward, obviously waiting for something to be dropped into it.

The bells. He still wanted the bells.

She stared at his hand, and then at him. He looked back patiently.

"Give me the bells," he said calmly. "Give up. You'll pass, and they'll fail. That's the way of things. They'll be disappointed, but they should have been prepared for something like this."

Sakura blinked.

She wasn't strong enough. She wasn't ready to be on this kind of team, with the Hokage's son and the Uchiha's heir.

She couldn't fight Obito. She couldn't defend her teammates.

She should give up. Take the easy pass, and send her team back to the academy. Continue on herself. Her parents would be proud

And yet…

And yet…

' _Who does he think we are?'_

Did he think that she would just throw away Naruto and Sasuke's chances at being genin?

That she would _betray them_ like that?

Sakura blinked again, but it wasn't the bewildered, defeated one from earlier returning for another round.

Her bright green eyes sharpened. The hand holding her teammate's futures opened momentarily, three small balls of metal revealed momentarily, before tightening again into a white-knuckled fist.

What could she do, though? She couldn't fight Obito. The last couple minutes had proven that without a doubt.

She couldn't throw the bells away. Obito was far faster than her: he'd definitely retrieve them before she could.

She had to get them out of hands.

…

There was a way.

Sakura felt stupid for even considering it, but at the moment, it seemed the best option.

"You… you want the bells, sensei?" she muttered angrily, barely able to get the words past her quivering lips. Her whole body was shaking. She couldn't tell if it was fear or anger.

Obito cocked his head.

"Give them up, Sakura. Please. I would prefer not to-"

And Sakura's hand shot up, stuffing all three bells in her mouth.

Obito's eyes went wide, and he looked down at her as she swallowed with a little hesitation, gagging as they slid down her throat.

Sakura coughed heavily, once, twice, and then glared up at her teacher, trembling in fear and anger.

' _C'mon.'_

The voice wasn't real, wasn't out loud, but Obito could unmistakably see the message in her wide green eyes

' _Take them then.'_

There was a moment of silence as Sakura panted and Obito stared.

And then the Uchiha laughed.

He sat up, unfolding out of his crouch, and scratched the back of his head.

"Well," he said, suppressing a laugh. "That works, I guess. I'll go get Naruto: give him the good news."

He turned and walked away, and left Sakura on the ground, staring at his back.

She only had one thought in her head.

' _What?'_

###

About twenty minutes earlier, Sakura stared down at the bell in her hand, and then back up at her teacher.

"Um…" she began to mutter, before Naruto cut her off.

"The bell test?" he asked, incredulous. He and Sasuke shared a glance. "Obito, we know this! What's the point of-"

He knew about this test? How-

His father was the Hokage. Of _course_ he knew something like this.

"Well," the older man smiled warmly. "First off, it's Obito- _sensei_ now." Despite the smile, he managed to inject just enough mirthful threat into his voice to make Naruto's eyes go widen. The blond boy took a half-step back.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. Sakura just watched the Hokage's son carefully.

She was tired, and somewhat cold. It was too early in the morning to be doing this sort of thing.

After Obito had appeared in the classroom, they'd all made their way to the roof. Basking in the warmth of the sun and enjoying the slight breeze that swept over the Hokage monument and down onto the academy, Sakura had felt some of her anxiety melt away.

Even if her team was unlike any of the others, it was still a team, and she was part of it. That idea gave her a slight thrill.

Obito had gone around and asked everyone why they were there. Their likes and dislikes, their hobbies, their ambitions…

He'd been humoring her. She could tell: it was painfully obvious.

Naruto and Sasuke were already close. They knew each other practically better than they knew themselves.

Naruto had loudly boasted that he was going to "steal my dad's hat if it's the last thing I do", at which Obito had given a wry smile, obviously enjoying a private joke.

Sasuke had been more subdued. And thinking back to his proclamation still made Sakura feel cold in a way she didn't really understand.

"I will restore the Uchiha to their former power," he'd said in a quiet voice, his hands crossed in front of his face. Obito had just watched him with careful eyes.

But then, the handsome boy's features has sharpened, and his teeth had flashed in the midday sun, and suddenly Sakura didn't find him so handsome anymore.

"But before I do that," he'd gritted out, "I have something else to attend to."

Obito had simply given him a _look_. Sakura knew those kind of looks. The kind that screamed 'We'll be talking later.'

It was clear that there was something she didn't know about Sasuke. And that thought filled her with a curious combination of wariness and self-admonishment.

Of _course_ she didn't know everything about Sasuke.

But Sakura had thought she'd somewhat _understood_ him, and that flash of sharp bitterness he'd shown unnerved her because she'd never caught a glance of it before. Sasuke had never exactly been warm, but he'd never seemed bitter.

Never seemed… dangerous.

But Sakura hadn't had time to figure that bitterness out because then it had been her turn. Obito had turned to her expectantly. So had Naruto, swiveling in her direction with a beaming grin shining on his face.

Sasuke had only shifted slightly, but it was clear he was listening, at least.

Sakura had stumbled. "I-I'm Sakura Haruno. I… I like umeboshi, and training, I guess," she'd said uncertainly. She had never especially enjoyed the more physical aspects of shinobi training. Running, sometimes, because she was convinced moving at speeds most people would never be able to dream of would never get old, but kata's were often _boring_.

Genjutsu, though… she was glad that the Fourth had instituted genjutsu training in her second-to-last year. She and Ino had always been neck and neck in academics, but Ino had always gotten the better of her in physical stuff (though Hinata had consistently beaten the both of them there).

But with genjutsu training (both the most basic of basics, and dispelling), Sakura finally found something that had proved to her she _was_ good at something besides theory.

It had made her decide to push herself harder. That maybe she _could_ be something more than average.

Her parents had supported her, and she'd graduated with the highest academic scores of any of the kunoichi, barely beating out Ino.

But even that didn't give her nearly enough confidence to be on a team like _this_.

She had been so caught up in her thoughts, she'd barely noticed Obito's question.

"What?" she'd blurted, before blushing. Naruto had laughed. Not mean-spiritedly, but it had still made Sakura's blush only grow.

Obito had merely smiled. "I said," he said gently, "why do you want to be a ninja?"

That had brought Sakura up cold.

Why _did_ she want to be a ninja?

She'd started out because she'd wanted to be closer to Sasuke. When she had been younger, he'd been fascinating.

( _'and handsome'_ )

The fact that both her parents were chunin had only contributed. She didn't know what she _wouldn't_ have done: being a ninja was what her family _was_. Not defending the Leaf just didn't enter into her thoughts.

But she'd thought that she would end up like them. A career shinobi. A chunin by her late teens or early twenties, and then doing whatever she could to help the village till she either retired or…

Well, or until she died. But Sakura had never really considered the idea of dying in service to Konoha. She'd been too young.

She still was, honestly. But the concept was no longer so completely alien, unable to be understood.

So, did she want to be a ninja because she wanted to serve the village? To die for it?

Or because she wanted to be close to Sasuke?

Sakura…

Didn't know.

The astonishment and shame she'd felt at that discovery must have shown on her face, because Obito had looked at her askance and leaned back onto the railing on the edge of the roof, waiting for her answer.

Naruto had cocked his head, his bright blue eyes curious. Sasuke had just remained fixed, staring up at the sky.

"I don't know," Sakura had finally whispered.

"Eh?" Naruto had asked articulately.

Sakura had just shaken her head.

"I don't know."

Obito had blinked. Sakura had almost flinched at the tiny motion.

She'd practically been able to hear him say what she had been thinking.

' _So why are you here?'_

There had been a moment of silence.

Silence that Obito had mercifully broken.

"You guys aren't out of the woods yet, you know," he'd said. "There's one test left."

Naruto had rolled his eyes grandiosely. "Yeah, yeah. What time?"

Obito had looked distinctly unimpressed. "Tomorrow. Seven in the morning. Training field seven."

Sakura had wondered if they'd been assigned that field based on their team number, or if it was just a coincidence. The same could go for their meeting time.

Also: _seven in the morning_?

She hadn't been the only one to blanch. Sasuke, as usual, had kept his cool, but Naruto had protested. Loudly.

Obito hadn't cared.

And so now, she was here, it was too early in the morning, it was rather chilly despite the sun having risen about thirty minutes earlier, the forest surrounding the small clearing was buzzing with life, and her teacher had just handed her a small silver bell.

She stared down at it. Obito made his way over to Naruto, and dropped a bell in his hand as well.

"Well, you see Naruto," he was saying, sounding perfectly cheerful. "This is a bit different from the bell test your dad's told you about. I decided to switch it up a little."

"Eh?" Naruto asked wordlessly.

Obito's voice became drier than the average desert, moving somewhere into the realm of a sandstorm. "Well, first off, I'm handing the bells to _you_ ," he said, plopping another one of the things in Sasuke's outstretched hand.

"Oh yeah." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I just figured you were giving up, you know. Since we'd snatch them from you so quick and all."

Obito loudly snorted. Naruto grinned.

Sakura just shrunk in on herself.

Apparently, she would have had to steal something from her teacher if he'd gone with the "normal" bell test. And unlike Naruto, she wasn't confident she could have managed that.

"Yes, well, your imminent victory aside, I've decided to take a different tack with this one," Obito said, stepping back.

"Which is?" Sasuke finally spoke up. He focused on his older relative, his eyes intense.

Obito spoke up, making sure that all of his students could hear him. Sakura especially.

"Listen, each of you has a bell," he said.

Naruto made to interrupt, and Obito glared at him.

Naruto didn't interrupt.

"That bell is your ticket to being a shinobi."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked quietly.

What _did_ he mean? Did they have to turn the bells in somewhere?

No: this was a test. It wouldn't be that simple.

Obito smiled. Unlike the last one, this one was rather grim.

"You have to hold on to that bell for the next twenty minutes. If you lose it, you'll be going right back to the academy," he said. A jolt of ice shot down Sakura's spine.

Her fist tightened around her bell. It was suddenly _much_ more important that she not accidentally drop it.

"Pfft. That's it?" Naruto gloated. "That's simple! Where's the-"

"I'll be trying to take them, of course," Obito said, and Naruto shut up, a stricken look on his face.

"I think I'll give you guys a head-start. How about… a minute," Obito continued.

Team Seven stared.

Obito cocked an eyebrow. "Get going," he said, and then he vanished.

Sasuke made an indistinct noise to her left, and Sakura turned to him. He was smiling.

"This should be interesting," he said.

"I'll say!" Naruto piped in cheerfully. "We've got a minute: plenty of time for a couple traps. We gotta get ready!"

He turned to Sakura. "C'mon!" he grinned. And then he took off towards the edge of the clearing, Sasuke following him. They were headed for the forest.

Sakura blinked, and threw herself after them.

She drew up next to Sasuke, her mind whirling.

"What… what are we doing?" she asked quietly. "Do we have a plan?"

Sasuke snorted. "Just stay on your toes. I doubt Obito will be going all out, but we still should be-"

At that moment a dark blue blur shot from the canopy and hit Sasuke so hard that he just _vanished_. One moment he was next to her: the next, he wasn't.

The young Uchiha rocketed backwards, bouncing off the ground with an audible thump and rolling several painful meters. Sakura slowly turned towards him and stared, nearly tripping over her own feet.

Sasuke stumbled to his feet mid-roll, his expression somewhere between enraged and agonized. Sakura stood and watched him, before turning towards where he'd been a moment before.

Obito was standing there, a neutral expression on his face.

Sakura yelped and jumped backwards, tightening her hand around her bell.

She could hear Naruto yelling as he ran back towards them.

"What the hell?!" he demanded, skidding to a stop next to Sakura and glaring at his teacher.

"That wasn't a minute!" he yelled. "That was barely twenty seconds! What do you think you're-!"

Obito slowly turned his head towards Naruto. The blond boy froze.

"No," the older Uchiha said calmly. "That wasn't a minute."

And then he vanished again, and Naruto was left gaping.

Sakura was too, but she recovered slightly sooner. She took off towards Sasuke, who stood stock still, shaking.

"Sasuke! Are you-"

"We're in trouble," he interrupted her.

He looked… almost scared. More annoyed than anything else, but Sakura could still see something in his eyes that she never had before.

"Huh?" Naruto jogged over, casting wary glances all around.

"He's not holding back." Sasuke grimaced, rubbing his chest. "That almost broke my ribs."

"Wuh? No way! No way Obito would do that!" Naruto shook his head. "It must have been an accident, right? I mean-"

No. No way that their sensei would try to break their ribs.

Right?

"Uchiha don't make mistakes," Sasuke said, and Naruto stopped. Sakura stiffened. "We have to get out of here. Stick together, too: if we're not careful, he'll pick us off."

Naruto stared. Then, he turned to Sakura.

"So… you wouldn't happen to have some sort of awesome sensing jutsu, would you?" he asked casually, almost betrayed by the slight tremor in his voice.

She shook her head wordlessly.

Naruto sighed shakily, but he kept grinning. "Damn."

' _Oh no.'_

She was completely useless here. How long did they have to hold onto the bells? Twenty minutes?

That was too long. An eternity. Obito had almost taken Sasuke out in less than a second.

What chance did they have against _that_?

Naruto must have noticed that she was trembling, because his smile just stretched wider. It looked all the more fake for it.

"Hey, don't worry," he said. "We got this." He turned back to Sasuke, leaving Sakura exactly as reassured as she'd been at the start of the conversation.

Which wasn't very.

"Sasuke? You good?"

The Uchiha responded by pulling himself to his feet. His onyx eyes narrowed slightly, and red bled into them.

His Sharingan swirled into existence, the two tomoe rotating lazily.

"Next time," he said steadily, "I'll see him coming."

Naruto's smile turned real, and Sakura calmed down slightly.

Of course. Sasuke had a Sharingan as well. That would even the odds a little.

She ignored the niggling voice that pointed out that the difference between Sasuke and Obito was probably so great that his eyes wouldn't make much of a difference.

"All right then!" Naruto pounded his hand into his fist, and turned around.

"Obito!" he yelled. Sakura stared at him.

What the hell was he doing?

"We're ready for you this time! That trick won't work twice!" Naruto shouted.

The forest didn't answer. Naruto's grin faded slightly.

He looked back at Sakura. "We gotta get going." He didn't sound as confident as he had a moment before. "So long as we're moving, we gotta better chance."

They took off once again, staying as close together as possible. Sakura watched the forest carefully, her senses straining.

There was nothing out there but the rustling of the wind and the screeches of the birds.

###

"Naruto… are you sure this will work?" Sakura murmured, lying prone on the high branch next to the blond. They were situated in a tree deeper in the forest, waiting patiently.

Or at least, Naruto was waiting patiently, though he occasionally fidgeted. Sakura was almost jittering in anticipation.

He grinned back, ignoring her subtle trembling. "'Course I'm sure!" he whispered excitedly, before frowning. "Unless he just teleports out of there."

Sakura blinked. "He can _teleport_?"

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto had definitely regained his confidence. "It's his Sharingan, y'know. Crazy, right? Eyes that let you teleport?" He chuckled. "I wonder what Sasuke will end up with, huh?"

Sakura shook her head, staring back out into the clearing. She couldn't see the trap Naruto had laid down: the ink had already vanished. She couldn't spot Sasuke either: the Uchiha had vanished into the undergrowth.

She felt something brush her back, but when she looked back, there was nothing there.

It must have just been the wind-

"Waiting for someone?"

The voice came from right above her, and she yelped, flipping over. Obito stood over her, staring down. His left eye was closed, but the right was open, the Sharingan active, and the sickle-sided triangle within the quadruple-bladed circle spun so slowly it almost seemed like it wasn't moving at all.

Sakura shrieked and kicked up with both feet, aiming for Obito's stomach.

He didn't even flinch as his hand came up, effortlessly stopping both of Sakura's legs at the apex of their kick. She spun, trying to work her foot around his hand, and he pushed forward, forcing her to roll backwards or have her leg broken.

She tumbled off the branch, flipping in the air. As she fell, she glimpsed Naruto tackling their teacher, carrying them both off of the tree.

Sakura hit the ground, continuing her roll backwards and quickly coming to her feet. She stumbled, a little dizzy, but none the worse for her twenty foot fall.

She stopped staggering just in time to watch Sasuke come out of _nowhere_ and crash into Obito, knocking him right out from under Naruto.

The man was on his feet before he even touched the ground, and then he and Sasuke were instantly caught up in a fierce taijutsu match.

Sakura could barely follow it. Sasuke leapt into a handspring, kicking for Obito's face, but the older man deflected the blow and spun around, his leg striking out like a snake at Sasuke's hand. The younger Uchiha popped into the air, clearing the kick easily, and attempted to grab Obito's leg.

Which was when Sakura's new sensei flipped into a brutal axe-kick with barely a hint of motion, catching Sasuke in the legs and spiking him into the ground.

The Uchiha _bounced_ , and Obito kicked out again as he landed, knocking Sasuke away. He tumbled out of the clearing, almost knocking over Sakura, who barely managed to catch him.

Naruto scrambled to his feet, his hands coming together in a simple sign. "Gotcha!" he shouted.

And then the clearing exploded.

The blast was overwhelming, blowing leaves off of trees for dozens of feet around. Sakura's hair flew back, and her face grew hot. The sound was almost a physical thing, followed by the pressure wave, which knocked her flat on her butt.

Sasuke came with her, and they both ended up prone, staring at the devastated clearing as Naruto made a noise that could only be described as cackling as burning leaves rained down around him.

"Ha! Haha! Didn't see that coming, did'ya?" he laughed, shaking with adrenaline. "You just gonna walk that one off, Obito!?"

"No need."

Sakura's eyes went wide as the Uchiha swirled into existence behind Naruto, who froze, slowly turning his head back.

"Ah… shi-" he managed to say, before the dark-blue man punched him so hard that Sakura didn't even see him hit the ground. One second Naruto was standing: the next he was flat on his face, completely still.

Obito casually turned around, staring at her and Sasuke. He shook his head, and muttered quietly.

"Language. I'll have to talk to Kushina about that."

Then, he spoke up, raising his voice.

"That was a decent attempt. But your teamwork needs work." He crossed his arms. "Try again."

He stepped down, reaching down and grabbing Naruto's ankle. The blond was completely insensible. He didn't even groan.

The boy twisted out of existence, vanishing without a sound, and Obito stood back up.

Sakura stared. Sasuke pulled himself to his feet, away from her.

"You say our teamwork needs work, and then you take him away?" he yelled, coughing and favoring his left leg. "How are we supposed to work together if he's stuck in Kamui? There's no way I can get in there-"

"Indeed." Obito sounded distinctly unimpressed: his left eye was still closed. "What a shame."

And then he twisted out of existence just as Naruto had, and Sakura was left alone with Sasuke, who stared at the spot where their teacher had been a moment before, growling.

The both of them sat in silence for a moment. Sasuke's hands clenched and unclenched, and he ground his teeth. Sakura was lost inside her own head, and barely noticed.

Naruto was just… gone.

Could Obito _do_ that?

And if he could, why hadn't he before? When he'd been standing right over her? Why hadn't he taken her?

"Umm… Sasuke?" she finally asked, edging closer to him.

He twisted his head towards her, frowning intensely.

"He's messing with us," he said, as if such a thing was the most personal insult he'd ever heard. "He's messing with _me_."

Sakura blinked. "Sasuke, what should we _do_? Naruto's gone: it's just the two of us. How are we supposed to-"

He held his hand up. "He doesn't want us to beat him. And…" He paused, and snapped his head back towards where Naruto had been, before breaking into a run, scrambling through the grass.

Sakura blinked, and jogged after him. He dropped to one knee when he reached the patch of matted grass where his friend had been a moment before.

Something silver glinted in the dim light of the forest as Sasuke picked it up.

"He left it," he said quietly.

"What?" Sakura asked, barely able to hear him. She bent over his shoulder, looking at what he held in his hand.

Sasuke opened it, showing her what he held.

"Obito left Naruto's bell," he said clearly, before standing up, Sakura backing away to give him room. "That means he's not disqualified yet: so long as we hold onto it, he can make it through."

He reached out his hand. "You take it."

Sakura looked down at the bell in confusion, then back as Sasuke. She blushed, very slightly.

"Me?" she asked carefully. "Why-"

"I've got the best nin and taijutsu," Sasuke said matter-of-factly. "When Obito comes back again, I'll be the one fighting him. It's better for you to hang on to the bell, in that case: we can't afford to lose it."

Sakura gulped, and took the bell into her hand, staring at it.

Funny to think that something so small could be so important. She literally held Naruto's future in her hands.

"Do you have a plan?" she asked, cradling the bell.

Sasuke looked away from her, out into the forest.

"I don't have any fuinjutsu like Naruto does," he mused, talking to himself just as much as he was to her. "I have some wire… but there's no way he wouldn't see it coming."

He looked back at her. "They'll be better than nothing, though. Maybe we can distract him, and then I can take him down."

"Umm… Sasuke…" Sakura said quietly. The young Uchiha stared at her, cocking an eyebrow. "We don't have to fight him, you know. We just have to hold onto our bells until the time limit is up. Wouldn't it be easier to-"

"Maybe," he cut her off casually, and Sakura stopped talking immediately. "But we can't just wait around for him. If we do nothing, we've good as lost."

Sakura paused, then sighed and dropped her head slightly.

He was right, of course. Just waiting for Obito to show up wouldn't do them any good.

"Okay," she said, trying to sound calm. "So, where should we go from-"

"I feel like you aren't taking this seriously enough."

Sakura spun, looking around for the source of the baritone. Sasuke merely stiffened, and then looked straight up.

Sakura stopped, looked at him, and then followed his gaze.

Obito was hanging upside high above them, his feet stuck to a particularly large branch. He stared down at them, his arms crossed, frowning softly.

Sasuke hissed and backed up. Sakura dropped back as well, bringing herself closer to her teammate: she couldn't hope to fight Obito by herself.

"This isn't a game, you know," the older Uchiha said softly, his voice like water running over steel. "Do you think you can afford to just sit around in the forest, making plans?" He shook his head. "Your teammate is gone. Don't you think you should be figuring out how to deal with his absence?"

"Or save him," Sasuke shot back. Sakura glanced at him: hadn't he said earlier that saving Naruto would be impossible?

Apparently, that didn't matter to him anymore.

Obito chuckled. "You saying things like that make me think that maybe this exercise isn't so pointless." He uncrossed his arms, bringing one to his sides, and the other just below his mouth. "Why don't you prove me right?"

His right hand, the one near his face, began running through signs. Sakura stared.

There was no way. Was their sensei really going to-?

"Katon," he said, sounding supremely bored. Beside her, Sasuke tensed, bending his knees. Sakura glanced at him in a panic, and then back at Obito. She felt cold.

"Hōsenka no Jutsu," Obito finished, bringing his hand to his mouth.

And then he spat dozens of tiny fireballs, turning the air above Sakura into a descending inferno.

The Haruno yelped and jumped back, barely avoiding one of the flames as it crashed into the ground where she had been standing, reducing the grass to so much blackened mulch. She looked back up, and could see nothing but fire.

There was a whisper of movement, and she jerked her head to the left.

Sasuke was there, glaring at her, his two-tomoe Sharingan spinning rapidly.

He was so _fast_. How could he be that fast?

"Sakura, _move_ ," he whispered, seemingly louder than any shout Sakura had ever heard, and then he shoved her as hard as he could, sending her flying backwards. There was a great boom as the fireballs struck a moment later, frying everything below Obito.

She hit the ground and tumbled, skidding across the grass and eventually coming to a stop flat on her back, covered in tiny scrapes. She looked back at where she'd come from, but Sasuke was nowhere to be seen: the forest was completely engulfed in flames over there, filling the air with smoke and heat and making it impossible to see anything.

"Sasuke!" she shouted, scrambling to her feet. There was no way he'd been taken out by something like that! There was no way their sensei would have done something so-

" _He's_ not the one you should worry about." The face came from directly to her right, and Sakura jumped away from it instinctively, falling into an academy taijutsu stance, her foot sliding out in front of her and her arms loosening themselves in anticipation of a punch.

She panted, adrenaline coursing through her system and jittering her clenched fists, and glared at her sensei, one of her lips pulling back slightly.

Obito stopped, cocking his head. "Oh?" he said curiously. "You want to test your taijutsu, do you?"

His right eye, its strange Sharingan whirling unbelievably slowly, watched her intently. His left was still closed.

She paused, staring back. Slowly, Sakura began to realise exactly what she was doing.

Before she could _act_ on that realization and take back one of the stupidest decisions of her life, Obito shrugged, casually dropping into a relaxed pose. His Sharingan melted away, his eyes returning to the recognizable Uchiha onyx, and he opened his left one, revealing a perfectly ordinary eye there as well.

Sakura wondered, under the constant mental chant of, _'Idiot idiot_ idiot _'_ , why he had closed that eye. Had it been a handicap for them?

"I'll make it a bit fairer for you, then," he said, grinning slightly, gesturing offhandedly at his face, and the sudden lack of pinwheel eyes to be found there. "Show me what you got."

Sakura gulped audibly, a drop of sweat running down her neck.

She glanced around, but Sasuke was still nowhere to be seen. Obito seemed to be the only thing left in the whole forest.

She didn't want to look at him, so she looked down instead. Her breathing was unusually loud in her head.

She could run. She wouldn't make it very far, but she could run.

But that would just lose her her bell, and Naruto's, which she had slipped into one of her many, many pockets, along with her own.

So what else could she do?

' _You fight, of course.'_

Ah. It was that voice again.

The voice that always came to her whenever Ino showed her up, or Naruto did something stupid, and even though Ino was her friend and Naruto was the Hokage's son, something in Sakura just begged her, demanded of her, that she pound them into the dirt.

The voice that scared Sakura like nothing else, because other people didn't have voices in their head, did they? Didn't have voices that told them to hurt people, at least.

But now…

Maybe the voice was right.

The only thing she _could_ do now was fight. Anything else would get her disqualified.

' _Why do you want to be a shinobi?"_

Sakura's hands stopped trembling, and her eyes hardened. She stared back at Obito, who was watching her patiently.

That didn't matter right now.

She could figure out _why_ she was a ninja after she became one.

There was a gust of wind, rustling the grass around Sakura's sandals, and she took it as her cue to move.

She charged straight ahead, her hand flashing through handsigns. Obito just watched her, not shifting from his stance.

It was a simple set. She wouldn't have left the academy without it. For Sakura, it was effortless.

Tiger, boar, ox, dog. The most basic bunshin technique: intangible clones, good for nothing but distractions. But maybe distractions would be all she'd need.

She jumped, high as she could, pumping chakra into her legs and soaring well over Obito's reach. There was a moment, just a second of surprise clear on his face, where his eyes didn't track her.

She brought her hands together, and silently finished the technique.

Three Sakura's shifted into existence besides her in midair: two to her left, and one to her right. They all landed besides Obito, though there was only the sound of a single person hitting the grass: the clones weren't physical, after all.

As Obito turned to look at them, they all reached into a hip pouch and drew gleaming kunai: Sakura felt her hand brush the bells she carried. They were much warmer than the metal around them.

Then, Sakura and her duplicates rushed forward as one. The one on her right went low, diving for Obito's gut. The clone directly to her left went high, leaping into the air and kicking for her sensei's face: the one next to it darted farther to the left, circling the man and sending its illusionary kunai flying right at his kidneys.

Sakura herself ran straight ahead, her kunai held in front of her, aiming for her sensei's chest.

She didn't want to kill him: she really didn't think she could, anyway.

Obito barely moved. He twitched his head slightly back, and the clone that had jumped missed completely, its foot striking nothing but air.

Obito's hair wasn't even ruffled, and his eyes narrowed.

That one was a fake: its kick hadn't pushed the air aside.

He slid forward, allowing the thrown kunai coming from his left to barely scrape him, brushing along his jacket. The material wasn't ripped: the one on his left was an illusion as well.

Two Sakura's remained: one was a clone. One was diving forward, ready to gut him, and the other was sprinting, a kunai held in front of her.

The Uchiha watched them for half a second, and both Sakura's stared back, glaring at him with scared green eyes.

Sakura knew, then and there, that Obito knew which one was her.

He proved her right a moment later by flipping sideways into the air, neatly clearing the diving clone, and coming right for her, his foot extended for a very painful kick.

Sakura came to a very sudden stop and raised her kunai, presenting the flat side to Obito and bracing her arm behind it.

He hit like a falling tree, and she skidded backwards, her sandals digging a groove in the grass.

Her hand felt broken. But it was still moving, and there hadn't been a horrific snapping noise, so she'd gotten lucky, and it was only sprained.

Obito didn't stop when he silently touched back down. He didn't wait for Sakura to shake out her hand.

He just came for her again, fast, so fast it made Sasuke's speed look like _hers_ , and Sakura brought her knife back up.

She took a deep breath.

Obito spun, sweeping his foot low. Sakura jumped over it, and he halted the motion in an instant, sending out a brutal straight-arm and hitting her dead in the chest. She was blown back, her entire body aching, and hit the ground once more, rolling to her feet in less than a second.

And then Obito charged again, his face expressionless.

Sakura brought her left hand up, the other maintaining an iron grip on the kunai, and focused her chakra, feeling it rush through her arms and eyes.

"Kai!" she murmured, and then rushed at her sensei, crouching low.

If the genjutsu worked, then Obito would see her charging at her full height, the kunai pulled back for an unprofessional downward sweep.

It was a good thing he'd deactivated his Sharingan. If he hadn't, she would have already lost, without a doubt.

Obito's elbow darted out over her head, knocking an imaginary Sakura into next week.

Sakura saw the opening and took it, stabbing up at the joint.

Her sensei shook his head at the same moment, snapping his onyx gaze down at her.

His eyes went wide. Sakura grinned.

' _Gotcha!'_

She was completely unprepared for him to leap, bringing his knee up and knocking the knife clean out of her hands, sending it twirling into the forest.

There was a moment of silence as Sakura rocked back, shocked by the sheer speed of her sensei, thrown off her guard by the force of his knee. Obito landed, coming to a stop a foot in front of her and standing up straight, staring down at her with narrowed eyes.

"Nice one," he said after a pause, grinning slightly. Sakura stared in disbelief. Her teacher frowned. "Though it would have worked much better if-"

Sasuke, as usual, came out of nowhere at that exact moment, trailing steel wire, his Sharingan whirling, and his face set in an anticipatory grimace.

Sakura barely saw any of that. To her, it just seemed like a black blur with two glinting red highlights smashed into her sensei's side, carrying him away from her.

Obito rolled to his feet, kicking Sasuke off of him as he did so.

The younger Uchiha barely minded, falling into a ready position, his arms stretched at his sides, wires wrapped around his fingers shining in the dim light of the forest.

"Sasuke," Obito said quietly. "You wouldn't have happened to have used Sakura as _bait_ , would you?"

What? There was no way. Sasuke wouldn't have done something like that.

Sasuke just snorted, turning his head very slightly to look at his teammate.

"Sakura," he said curtly. "Back up. I don't want you getting caught in this."

Sakura obliged without thinking, leaping backwards and gaining distance from both her teammate and her teacher.

"What exactly have you cooked up, Sasuke?" Obito crossed his arms, closing his eyes. "What'd you use the time your teammate bought you for, huh?"

"The thing that'll win us this test." Sasuke smirked.

"That's all?" Obito said quietly.

He shook his head. "Than you should have _done it_ , Sasuke, instead of telling me about it."

The younger Uchiha's eyes went wide as the older one rushed him with unbelievable speed. Sakura only caught a glimpse of movement before her new teammate was lifted into the air by his throat, his legs kicking futilely

"Guess you'll be joining Naruto, then," the man holding him sighed.

Sakura watched incredulously as her teammate began to swirl out of existence, just as Naruto had. He hadn't even had a chance to try whatever he had planned!

She pulled another kunai from one of her pouches, pulling back for a toss. Maybe it would distract Obito enough for Sasuke to break free and-

But then, she paused.

Beneath Obito's hand, Sasuke was grinning: baring his teeth in a vicious smile.

What did he have to be smiling about?

And then, just before Sasuke disappeared entirely, he popped in a puff of smoke. Sakura caught a flash of something small and colorful attached to a log in his place, before it disappeared.

Obito snapped his head towards the forest. "Substitution is useless against the Sharingan, Sasuke. You know this."

Sasuke stepped out from behind a tree just to Sakura's right, his arm held up, his hand holding something barely visible in the shadow of the canopy.

A piece of ninja wire. It extended back into the forest, lost among the trees.

Sakura blinked.

That had been unbelievably quick. There was no way she would have been able to pull off a substitution on such short notice, and with such precision. And with Obito sucking Sasuke into whatever his eye created, fighting the draw on his chakra…

Sasuke was even more skilled than she'd thought.

"Pretty useless, yeah," Sasuke admitted. "Unless, you know, I want you to use Kamui."

Obito stiffened, before relaxing, his arms falling to his sides. "Hmm." He shifted his gaze back and forth between Sakura and Sasuke. "What was in the scroll, Sasuke?"

Sasuke chuckled. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Sakura shuffled sideways, keeping an eye on Obito. "Err, Sasuke," she murmured. "What _was_ in that scroll?"

He glanced sideways at her. "Just give me a sec," he said with a small smile. Sakura felt something flutter at the look. "You'll see."

Obito stepped forward.

"Don't move, Sakura," Sasuke muttered, and then he pulled hard on the wire he held in his hand.

There was a hissing noise, and suddenly the forest was full of steel.

Kunai and senbon, each trailing their own shining steel string, flew from seemingly every direction, piercing Obito hundreds of times.

None of it touched him, of course, but it was impressive nonetheless.

Obito didn't even flinch. He just cocked his head, uncaring of all the wires passing through him, acting as if he hadn't just effortlessly survived a hail of metal that had left the surrounding trees speckled with steel.

The whole stretch of grass he stood in was utterly filled with the wires slicing the air and making movement impossible.

Obito stood in the center of it, his arms crossed once more.

"That was your plan?" he asked calmly. "Sasuke, did you really think-"

He stiffened, and looked down, dropping his hands to his side. Sakura narrowed her eyes, trying to catch site of whatever had gotten his attention.

Wires were wrapping themselves around Obito's abdomen, appearing from absolutely nowhere. A tag or two joined them, adorned with simple kanji.

Sakura stared in confusion, and Obito in annoyance. He grunted.

"Clever."

Then, he was yanked back by an invisible force, falling to the ground. Sasuke rushed forward, dancing his way through the wires effortlessly, and seized the one wrapped around Obito's stomach, while Sakura watched, apprehensive and confused.

Obito, watching her carefully, just sighed. The tags on his stomach began to hiss.

"Enough."

And then he swirled out of existence, disappearing entirely, and Sasuke was left clutching at air.

The Uchiha made an annoyed noise and straightened up, careful not to cut himself on any of the wires around him.

"Damn," he grunted, sounding eerily like Obito himself, before turning back to Sakura. "Thanks for distracting him, Sakura. I almost had him."

He began to gingerly remove himself from the field of wires. Sakura spoke up, trying not to sound too confused. "What did you do? Where did those wires come from?"

Sasuke didn't look at her while he answered, focused on clearing his own wire trap. "Obito's intangibility technique places him in another place, somewhere only he can access. When he took Naruto, he put him there as well."

With one last leap, he alighted in front of Sakura, clear of the wires. "Basically, I sent Naruto a scroll full of wires and explosive tags when I substituted away from Obito. I was hoping that idiot would be able to keep him busy while I forced a surrender…"

He shrugged. "Didn't work, I guess."

Sakura twisted her hands. "So, what do we do now?"

Sakura looked past her, his Sharingan still spinning idly. He reached into his pocket, pulling out his bell. "Now? I guess we just-"

The Uchiha vanished.

Sakura stumbled backwards, startled, and fell on her butt.

Sasuke's bell hit the grass without a sound.

Sakura whipped her head around, searching desperately. It was no use. Sasuke was just _gone_.

Slowly she pulled herself to her feet, inching forwards and bending down to pick up Sasuke's bell. It gleamed in her hand, warm against her palm.

She stared at it for a moment, entranced, before jerking her head up.

"Sasuke!" she yelled, looking around once more, hoping that for some reason, maybe this time he would appear.

He didn't.

She paused. "Naruto?" Sakura's voice was quieter, as the reality of her situation sunk in.

She was alone, holding both of her teammates bells.

Her hand tightened around Sasuke's.

"Sakura."

She spun, scanning the trees, her eyes wide. It was Obito. His voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"I would suggest you run."

And then, the forest was silent once more.

Sakura looked around one last time, and then tucked Sasuke's bell into her pouch. She took off into the forest, sprinting as fast as she could.

She'd pass this test. She had to now.

Sasuke and Naruto were counting on her.

###

"Do you know what you did wrong?" Obito asked them, as they lay in the grass, nursing their injuries.

Sasuke didn't say anything, rubbing the bruise on his face instead: he appeared to be sulking, though Sakura didn't think she'd ever seen him do anything quite like that before.

Naruto spoke up. "We went up against you?" he grinned, rubbing the back of his head.

Obito chuckled. "Nice try." He shook his head, turning to Sakura, who was twisting her ankle, testing its range of motion.

"Sakura?" he said calmly. She jerked her head up towards him. "What do you think?"

Sakura stared at her teacher. "Umm…" she said, wracking her brain.

What had they done wrong? They'd done the best they could: Obito was just too fast and too strong for them.

"We… didn't…" she said slowly. Obito watched her carefully.

Sakura gave up under the piercing onyx gaze. "I don't know."

She lowered her head into her legs.

' _I never know.'_

"Hmm," Obito intoned. "Well."

He sat down on the grass, crossing his legs under him, "You didn't watch out for each other."

"What?!" Naruto shot to his feet, pointing an accusing finger at his teacher. "That's a load of crap and you know it! Sasuke and I-"

"Yes." Obito cut him off effortlessly. " _Sasuke and you_." He glanced meaningfully at the other Uchiha. "And what did Sakura do?"

Sakura frowned, leaning forward. "I fought you," she said somewhat indignantly. "I gave Sasuke time to set up his trap!"

' _And they wouldn't have passed unless I'd-'_

Sakura gulped unconsciously, touching a hand to her stomach. Her throat still felt raw.

Obito nodded. "And that was very brave of you."

Sakura blushed, falling back and losing her voice, while he continued.

"But you two didn't _plan_ that. Sasuke just took advantage of your courage. An admirable trait in a shinobi…"

Obito pulled himself to his feet. "But not in a teammate," he declared, his voice heavy.

He looked down at all of them. Sasuke just stared up, his expression unreadable. Naruto's eyes were narrowed, his lips pursed: it was the kind of face he made when he knew he was wrong, but didn't want to admit it.

Sakura was still looking at the grass, her head locked between her legs.

Obito sighed. "If it weren't for Sakura, neither of you would have passed, even if her method was… unorthodox" he said, vaguely gesturing at Sasuke and Naruto. The blond glanced at Sakura, a questioning look on his face.

Obito continued. "As it is, I'm hesitant to do it in the first place."

" _However_ ," he held up a hand, cutting off Naruto's inevitable cry of indignation before it could be born. "I _know_ there's a lot of potential with you guys. And I hope that you'll grow into that."

The Uchiha smiled. "So, congratulations. Today, you are all officially shinobi of the Leaf."

Naruto cheered, Sasuke grinned, and Sakura looked up at her teacher with thankful, but uncertain eyes.

Obito grinned at her and tapped two fingers to his forehead. "So, for now: Team Seven, dismissed."

Then, he flickered out of existence, and Sakura was left alone with her new team.

Naruto turned to her, his teeth shining.

"Sakura!" he said.

"How did you keep the bells away from Obito, huh?" he pounded his fists together enthusiastically. "He kicked the crap out of the both of us: how'd you stop him?"

Sakura blushed, and told him.

And Naruto laughed.


	4. Slice of Life

Family

"I'm home!"

Naruto, as he did with every entrance, burst through the door, stomping wet grass into the entryway carpet.

"Already?" a woman called from deeper within the house. Naruto strode forward, rubbing a stray bit of soot off his shoulder. All the waste he deposited on the ground vanished an instant after it hit the carpet, along with whatever associated stains it left behind.

His mother had gotten tired of cleaning up after him when he'd been younger, and shanghaied his father into helping her with what he had called "Project Keep the Floor Clean with Space and/or Time."

Naruto had thought the name was dumb when he was younger, and that hadn't changed. But he would always admit with a smile on his face that not having to worry about leaving a mess was probably the best thing his parents had done for him.

He didn't have much of a perspective about it, but that was unavoidable.

The blond strode into the main living room, almost tripping over the low table that just _barely_ jutted out from behind the doorframe for what must have been the thousandth time. His mom had never been able to convince his dad to move it: everything in the room, he insisted, was _right_ where it should be, and moving that table would mess it all up.

His mother was sitting on a short couch in the middle of the room, a huge scroll stretched out on a table in front of her, covered in esoteric swirls and unrecognizable kanji. She was glaring at the thing, her light grey eyes furrowed and her lower lip pouting, but as soon as he half-hopped over the stupid foot-high table, she shot her gaze up to him, a wide smile spreading on her face.

There was an ink-brush in her hair, still wet, streaking parts of the vibrant red with a dull black, but she didn't seem to notice.

"That was quick!" Kushina Uzumaki said, beaming at her son, who beamed back with an identical grin, uncaring of the multitude of scuffs, small burns, and bruises covering his body. She narrowed her eyes. "Obito didn't go easy on you, did he?" she accused, trying to sound serious and failing.

Somehow, Naruto's grin intensified. "Nope!" he chirped. "He kicked the _shit_ out of me!"

His mother rolled her eyes. "Language."

"Hey! That's what happened, though!" Naruto protested, plopping down on the couch next to her. "What am I supposed to call it?"

"He beat you to a pulp?" Kushina suggested cheerfully. "Curbstomped you? Gave you a panda makeover? Made you squeal like a-" She paused. "Wait. Scratch that last one." She shrugged, her hair bouncing with the motion, the brush streaking more of it. "Doesn't matter. Did you pass?"

"'Course I passed!" Naruto said indignantly. "Who do you think I am?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I'm Naruto Namikaze!"

Kushina reached out and flicked him in the forehead. Naruto leaned back, but he was never fast enough. "'Course you are," she said. "How'd you do it?"

Naruto explained, with several grand hand motions, some shouting, and the occasional pantomime, how the battle against Obito had gone. Kushina watched the whole thing with a smile that had shifted from sunny to gentle.

"And then he dumped me on the ground, and told us that we'd passed," he concluded.

Kushina looked unimpressed. "You tried to blow him up?" she asked archly.

"I knew he'd dodge it!" Naruto said indignantly. "He's _Obito_!"

His mom just sighed. "Fair enough, I guess." She perked up. "So, that new seal worked?"

"Perfectly!" Naruto said. "You got anything you don't need? Wait, it's fine. I think…" He rummaged around in one of his many pockets, while Kushina leaned over curiously.

"Aha!" He triumphantly withdrew an empty cup of ramen.

"You were keeping that in your jacket?" Kushina asked, grinning and exposing some of her elongated canines.

Naruto just grinned back, his more ordinary looking teeth shining. "It's coming in handy now, right?" he said, before jumping up off the couch. "I'm gonna do it in here, 'kay?"

Kushina just nodded, looking eager.

"Awesome." Naruto looked away from her, refocusing on the empty cup. He stared at it, took a deep breath, and then squeezed.

Ink spiraled out over the cup, forming over the paper and plastic, and Naruto tossed it straight up.

It exploded before it got three feet, blowing Naruto's hair back and depositing more soot on his shoulders. The sound echoed throughout the room as Naruto sat back down, smiling at his mom.

Her eyes were fairly sparkling. "That is so _cool_ ," she murmured, and for a moment both Naruto and Kushina were united by something almost as deep as the bond between mother and son: a love of things that went boom.

"So!" Naruto said. "What're you working on?"

Kushina shook her head. "Oh, this?" she said, gesturing to the scroll laid out in front of her. "It's nothing. Just some work for the barrier squad."

"The weird-hat guys?" Naruto asked. Kushina suppressed a giggle and nodded. "What do they want?"

"Pfft." Kushina waved her hand. "Just the impossible. Your dad wants to upgrade the barrier so that we'll know if people are coming into the village intending to hurt it."

"That's awesome!" Naruto said. before frowning. "What's so tough about it, though? You could just dial it to killing intent, or-"

"Yeah, but then anyone coming into the village in a bad mood would get swarmed by the ANBU," Kushina said patiently. "Intent is too broad. And see this here?" She pointed to a set of three swirling lines set in a box in the center of the scroll, and Naruto obligingly leaned in.

"That's the part that determines if they're wearing a headband," his mom explained. "Unless I redo the whole thing from scratch, I gotta make sure that I don't mess that up, or we'll get nothing but false alarms."

Naruto sat back. "Huh," he said. "How'd dad get you to agree to this? That's crazy."

Kushina rolled her eyes. "Oh, you know." She smiled. "He did that thing. You know, where he's like-"

"'Kushina, who else could do it?'" the Fourth Hokage said, as his hands came down on his wife and son's shoulders.

Naruto jumped, but Kushina just turned to her husband, smiling widely. "Remind me why that worked for the millionth time?"

He just swooped down and kissed her appreciatively. Naruto stuck out his tongue, making a gagging sound, and both his parents rolled their eyes simultaneously.

Minato pulled back, and Kushina made a soft sound. "Right. That's why."

Her husband just grinned, before turning to his son.

"You passed?" he said.

"'Course I did!"

Minato appraised him. "Obito did a number on you, huh?"

"Heh…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I did try to blow him up."

Minato grinned his distinctive grin, the one that made his eyes shine but only moved his mouth a little, and nodded. "Good. Gotta keep him on his toes," he said cheerfully. Then, his face tightened up slightly. Naruto barely noticed it.

"How was your team?" he asked. Kushina unconsciously straightened up.

"Eh…" Naruto waffled. "Sasuke's on it. You know how that goes," he said, flashing his teeth. "We basically just did what we always do."

"Mess around?" Kushina suggested.

"Ruin village property?" Minato said at the same time.

Naruto just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. We almost got Obito though! If he didn't have those cheap Sharingan…"

"How about your other teammate?" Kushina asked.

"What, Sakura?" Naruto said. His mom nodded.

He grinned. "She won us the test!" he said proudly.

Minato raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah! Obito took me and Sasuke out, and left our bells to her. And then she kept him from getting them! For like, five minutes!" Naruto nodded firmly. "I didn't see it, but it must have been _awesome_."

"Wow," Kushina said. "She sounds impressive."

"Err, not really," Naruto said. "She doesn't have any jutsu or anything. I mean…" His eyes lit up, and he turned to his dad. "Hey! Didn't you say you were gonna show me something when I passed?"

Minato and Kushina traded glances, and a single sentence.

' _We'll talk more about this later.'_

Then Minato grinned and held up a finger. "One sec," he said, and then he vanished.

Kushina snorted. "So lazy." She turned and looked behind the couch. "It's only like a couple rooms away, you know!" she shouted at the house.

"Ah!" Minato shouted back, and then popped into existence beside Naruto again, on his other side. "But getting there would take me at _least_ a minute."

Kushina just snorted again, at a loss for words. Naruto turned to his dad, just in time to almost fumble what he'd thrown at him.

"What?" He looked down at what he'd caught. It was a water balloon. "Hey! It's my job to throw these things!" He looked up, pretending to be angry. "Stop cutting in on my business!"

Minato just sighed. "It's for you," he said exasperatedly.

"Huh?" Naruto looked down at the balloon. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"It's for the jutsu I'm going to teach you," Minato said.

Naruto looked at his father suspiciously. "It's not a water jutsu, right? 'Cause I suck at those."

Minato just chuckled. "Trust me," he said. "This is no water jutsu."

Then he reached out and grabbed Naruto's shoulder, looking at Kushina over it. "We'll be back around six," he said. Kushina waved, and then both her husband and her son vanished.

Her smile not fading, she bent back over the table and began glaring at the seal again.

###

"You did _what_?" Mebuki Haruno said, blinking.

"I swallowed the bells," Sakura said, staring down at her feet.

Her mother burst out laughing, and she looked up, confused.

"Your father will _love_ that!" the woman said, grinning wildly. She looked over her daughter for a moment. "Don't look so ashamed! You did great!"

"Really?" Sakura asked.

"Of course!" Mebuki affirmed. "You survived Mangekyo no Obito's challenge! And you did it almost by yourself!" She clapped her hand down on Sakura's shoulder. "How many others can say that? It doesn't matter if you did it with something weird: you must have impressed him, or he wouldn't have passed you in the first place."

She took her hand back, her grin intensifying. "And now, you're on a team with the Hokage's son, and an Uchiha prodigy! So keep your head up!"

Sakura felt herself blush. "I barely did anything. They're the ones who kept him busy…"

"There you go again!" her mother scolded. "Downplaying yourself! They'd both be out of luck if it weren't for you!" She brought her hand up to her chin, pondering for a moment. "You should totally hold that over them."

"What?" Sakura said, aghast. "No!"

"Why not?" her mother shot back. "They definitely owe you a debt now!" Her eyes sparkled. "Maybe you could worm a date out of that Uchiha?"

Sakura's eyes went wide, and she turned around without a word, stomping up the stairs and towards her room.

"Oh c'mon!" her mom called after her. "What's the holdup? I could use some Sharingan grandkids! And that clan needs all the help it can get!"

"You _know_ I don't like when you say things like that!" Sakura called back, embarrassment turning her words angry.

She practically heard her mother's shrug. "Yeah. Doesn't make it any less fun."

Sakura just let out a frustrated moan, moderating her stomping and heading for her room. She passed the bathroom door on the way.

Her mother's voice stopped her one last time.

"Hey! Make sure you get those bells out now!" she laughed. "I doubt that sensei of yours will want them back otherwise, and dinner is soon! Don't want you throwing that up too!"

Sakura froze, slowly turning her head towards the bathroom as her mother's cackles retreated.

The sink gleamed at her, and she sighed, altering her stalking.

The bathroom door swung closed behind her.

###

"She sounds impressive."

Sasuke's gaze didn't change much, though he did shift his legs under him. His eyes just sharpened a little. "Really?

"Of course. She faced down Obito by herself. That alone says she's got something most of your classmates don't."

Sasuke considered the notion. It was true that Sakura was definitely on a higher level than most of the other academy students: she'd been the top scoring kunoichi, barely beating out the Yamanaka heir. But he'd never thought she'd been more than that. She had lacked something that he and Naruto didn't have.

Pedigree, maybe? Both her parents were just ordinary chūnin. She had no bloodline.

But it couldn't be that simple. The Yondaime hadn't had parents at all, shinobi or otherwise, and hadn't a bloodline to his name either. And he was the _Yondaime_.

Sasuke resolved to figure it out later. He'd have to spend some more time with Sakura before he could be sure.

"Sasuke?"

He shook his head, glancing up from the table. Mikoto Uchiha watched him, a small smile on her face. It made the burn scars covering the left side of it crinkle.

"You drifted off for a second there," she said playfully. "Thinking about her?"

"Hmm."

Her smile didn't change. "All right. If you want to be like that." She stood up from the mat, stretching her back out, and Sasuke followed her. "Do you need anything? I know you already got dinner-"

He smiled at her, his lips barely twitching. "I'm fine," he said. "I'll get myself something if I get hungry."

His mother pressed her lips together. "All right. Just stay away from the tomatoes, alright? Kushina is coming over for those later."

Sasuke blinked. "What for?"

His mother grinned and made a shushing motion. "Don't ask. That way, we can't be implicated."

The younger Uchiha snorted, before nodding and wandering away, opening the sliding door leading out of the room and stepping into the compound proper.

Mikoto watched him go.

He wasn't wandering, of course, and both she and Sasuke knew it. But she wasn't going to stop him.

If Sasuke wanted to talk to his father, that was up to him.

Sasuke moved through the streets of the compound, his sandals scraping mutely on the concrete. The one-and-two story houses and walls around him, concrete and paper and wood, slid by, barely making an impression on him. Only the occasional Uchiha crest caught his attention, the splash of red and black springing an image of a pinwheel eye into his mind.

He passed a couple clansmen as he 'wandered': most of them nodded to him, and Sasuke nodded back. Two or three grinned and mentioned his new headband, still shiny and un-scuffed, and Sasuke gave them vague agreements and thanks.

Some of them realized that he wasn't entirely there with them, and allowed him to pass with little comment.

Eventually, he reached his destination: a squat, windowless house with a single door of black lacquered wood.

He pushed it open without ceremony, the greased hinges swinging open without a hint of protest.

Silence greeted him, like it always did.

He took a step forward. The floor was kept immaculately clean, but Sasuke nonetheless half-expected his feet to kick up a cloud of choking dust.

The silence was doing a fine enough job of choking him, anyway. It wouldn't have needed the help.

So, Sasuke spoke. It was the only way to dispel the nothing that was strangling him.

"I passed," he said simply. The silence, momentarily taken aback, rushed back into the gap left after his sentence, and answered him in its own way.

Sasuke's fist tightened. "I'm a genin, now." He put a thumb to his hitai-ate: its shine had been dulled by the emptiness of the building. "A shinobi of the Leaf."

Nothing happened. The proclamation didn't light up the room, or shift the stone floor. It just sunk into the silence, and became part of it.

Sasuke took another step forward, and then another. "I'm closer," he said. "Closer to finding out why…"

His Sharingan spiraled out, and the dimness of the room slid away. Fugaku Uchiha's face was revealed; his customary frown unchanged from the last time Sasuke had seen it.

Of course it was the same. Pictures didn't change.

The mantle it sat on, the lone feature of the dim room, was also host to twenty and some other pictures, all the same size as Fugaku's, all with Uchiha immortally preserved on them. Some were frowning even more severely than Fugaku, others were smiling: one was sticking his tongue out playfully.

There was a candle set in the mantle before each of the pictures. Only a few were burning; Fugaku's wasn't one of them.

Sasuke took another step forward, bringing one hand up slowly.

"I'm not going to let him get away with it, father," he said. A flame sparked into existence in the palm of his hand, and he gently brought it to the unlit candle in front of his father's picture. The wick lit without a sound, and the dancing light of the flame in Sasuke's hand vanished, replaced by the gentle play of the candles comparatively dull light.

Sasuke Sharingan, still active, gleamed in the candle's light. He stared intently at his father's picture, as if the man would come alive within it and give him some sort of affirmation of what he was saying.

He didn't, of course. Fugaku Uchiha was dead, and dead men could do no such thing.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"I swear it," he said, his voice trembling, his nails digging into his palm.

"Itachi will pay."


	5. C-Rank

The Mission

It was a grey day.

The sky was a blank slate, overrun with pale clouds. The sun lay somewhere behind them, but its shape was completely hidden; light did not shine so much as leak into the world.

Naruto looked down at the lake; the water was dim and grey, the same color as the sky, and it was almost impossible to see anything that was more than a couple feet down. The flash of pink he was hoping to see refused to appear. He suppressed a shiver. The water dripping off him wasn't cold, but the occasional gust of wind made it seem so.

"Uh, Sasuke," he asked uncertainly. Sitting besides him, Naruto's friend glanced towards him. His dark hair had been made even darker by the water, and it damply hung down around his face, nearly obscuring it. "Is she still down there?"

Sasuke shrugged, leaning forward and activating his Sharingan for a moment. He peered into the water, narrowing his eyes.

"She is," he confirmed, leaning back. "It looks like she's sitting on the bottom."

"What?!" Naruto asked, starting to pace. "Should we go get her? She really needs to come up. It's been nearly-"

Sakura burst from the water with a great gasp, her hair wetly flapping about. She took another hasty breath, and then turned back towards the shore.

"You guys are already out?" she asked, confusion flitting across her face. She started to swim back. Naruto gaped at her, and she frowned. "What?" The Namikaze refused to answer, so she turned to her other teammate. "Hey, Sasuke, how did I do?"

A different voice interrupted.

"Nearly four minutes." As he often did, Obito seemed to appear out of nowhere, wearing a large grin. Sakura stared at him in disbelief, and Team Seven's sensei smiled back. "Very impressive, Sakura." He turned to Naruto and Sasuke; Naruto stopped pacing, shooting a grin back, while Sasuke remained lounging on the ground, acknowledging Obito with a nod.

"That's an interesting exercise, you two," Obito said to the boys. "When did you come up with it?"

"A while back," Naruto said cheerfully, shooting Sakura another impressed glance. "My mom told us that doing the oxygen… thing…" he waved his hands vaguely towards his chest, "with our lungs would help our chakra control." He turned to Sakura. "But we've never managed for more than three minutes!" he practically shouted in enthusiasm. "That was awesome, Sakura!"

The girl blushed. "Thanks, Naruto."

"Looks like Sakura really does have some impressive chakra control," Obito noted out loud. "Even better than yours, Sasuke."

The younger Uchiha shrugged, his eyes wandering back to Sakura for a moment, and Naruto puffed up. "Hey, what about me?"

Obito grinned. "Ah, you've got the worst control on the team, Naruto." The blond squawked a protest, and his sensei laughed. "Maybe you should ask Sakura for some pointers, hmm? Little cooperation?"

Naruto turned to do just that, but Obito cut him off before he could. "You'll have to wait till later, though. We've got a mission."

"A mission?" Sasuke asked, perking up.

"What is it?" Sakura said.

"Are we rescuing someone?" Naruto practically pleaded.

Obito's grin widened.

"Something like that."

###

"A bridge!" Naruto shouted indignantly for what had to be the fourth or fifth time. Sakura had lost count. Her teammate hammered another plank of wood into place, nearly crushing his own thumb. "We're never gonna get to do something interesting!"

Team Seven was working about ten feet above one of the several canals running through Konoha. They'd been hired to help put together a connecting bridge; it wasn't much more than putting down a wooden foundation. The job was simple enough, but not the most exciting.

Hence, Naruto's shouting.

"I did tell you it was something like rescuing someone. Think of all the time you'll be saving people. You're such a fatalist, Naruto," Obito said from the canal below. He was standing on the water, uncaring of the current rushing under his feet. Sakura stole a glance at her sensei every once and awhile. Seeing someone so casually walk on water was still unusual for her to see; she supposed she'd get used to it eventually, but right now it just showed how far ahead their teacher was.

"I don't know what that means, but it's _too long_! Just like all these D-Ranks! It's been a month!" Naruto yelled back, finally finishing one stretch of walkway. The civilian overseeing the construction, a nice man with a balding head who'd introduced himself as Soma, gave the work a cursory inspection and then gifted Naruto with a sober thumbs-up. Naruto returned the motion with a brilliant smile, and then turned to shout at his teacher some more. "No, almost two!" he huffed. "Are you even gonna let us leave the village?"

Sakura kept her head down and worked as she listened to her loud teammate. Sasuke was being rather quiet; he went like a machine, laying planks and hammering them down with quick, efficient movements. To Sakura, it didn't seem like he cared about the monotonous work. His face was completely blank, though he did glance at their sensei occasionally.

"Of course I'll let you leave the village," Obito answered. He considered it, one hand cupping his chin. "Eventually." Sakura suppressed a giggle at Naruto's frustrated groan.

Suddenly, Obito stiffened, looking back over his shoulder. Sakura, still holding back her small laugh, followed his gaze. He was looking back at one of the other bridges, farther along the canal. There was a gaggle of chunin crossing it, talking amongst themselves; one of them was noticeably limping, but didn't seem to care. They were followed by a frustrated looking woman with long, straight brown hair and two purple markings on her cheeks. She looked like a Inuzuka or maybe an Akimichi, but was too clean looking for the former and far too lean for the latter.

Obito's eyes lit up at the sight of her, and without a word he bounded off over the water, leaving his team behind. He was nearly a hundred meters away a moment later, leaping up onto the bridge and following the woman and chunin out of sight. Sakura blinked and looked back to her team, confused by their sensei's sudden departure.

Naruto sniggered, and Sasuke gave a faint smile.

"What was that?" Sakura asked.

"It's ~ _Rin_ ," Naruto said in a singsong voice. Sasuke bounced a nail off the blond's head, and Naruto flinched. "Hey!"

"You know what he'll do if he hears you saying it like that," Sasuke said with quiet amusement. "We'll be lucky if we get stuck cleaning out the sewer system." He considered. "With our bare hands. Sakura would probably be okay though."

"Well that's… good?" Sakura asked, and Sasuke nodded. She smiled. "But who's Rin?"

"One of Obito's old teammates," Sasuke answered.

"The only one who's left," Naruto said, unusually sober, and Sasuke bounced another nail off his head. "Hey! She is!"

"You can't mean…" Sakura whispered, imagining. She felt like she was getting into something private; shared between the rest of the team, but not her. A transgression. But Naruto didn't seem to notice, or care.

"The other one died, back in the war," he explained, continuing his work. "His name was Kakashi; he was one of my dad's students, actually! Everyone thought he was going to be this big prodigy, but apparently he got really unlucky." He shook his head, answering Sakura's unspoken question. "I don't know what happened. They've never told me."

Unlucky. Shinobi did get unlucky; they were just human, after all. Still, something about how casually Naruto said it sent a solitary chill racing down Sakura's spine. Prodigies sometimes got unlucky. What happened to people who didn't even have that?

"So Rin's sensei's old teammate, huh?" Sakura asked, mostly talking to herself, trying to forget the cold. The sun was finally starting to come out, after all. "He ran off so quickly; I guess if it was an old friend-"

Sasuke snorted.

"What?"

Naruto grinned mischievously. "She's really nice, but they've got something going on."

"Ooh." Sakura couldn't help herself. There was something undeniably romantic about two of the Hokage's old students being involved. "How long-?"

"Nah, it's not like that," Naruto said. "But my mom says they've been 'dancing around each other since they got out of diapers.'" He sniffed. "Kinda gross, but she always says stuff like that."

"Oh," Sakura said, turning that over in her head. So, an old teammate and a romantic interest… that their sensei wouldn't pursue.

Playing matchmaking between two jonin- wait.

"Is she a jonin too?" Sakura asked, before the silence could set in too much. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "She works at the hospital, but she goes out on missions every once and awhile." He gave an envious grin. "My dad says they're usually pretty high level."

Sakura smiled back, the gears in her head turning. Playing matchmaker between two jonin was probably, no, _definitely_ was an incredibly stupid idea, but there was a part of her that was giggling and rubbing its hands together at the thought of it anyway. If Ino were here she'd probably be doing the same thing.

Still…

"Hey!" Her sensei's voice broke Sakura's thought process, and she almost guiltily snapped her head back towards him. He'd appeared at the end of the bridge, where they'd started. His hair was ruffled, but he was smiling happily. "Sorry about that, had to run. You guys look like you're having fun."

"They're nearly done for the day." Soma's gravelly voice cut in, drawing the shinobi's attention. The man was leaning against a half complete railing, a half-grin twitching his lips up. "You can all leave now, if you want; I really appreciate the help."

Team Seven looked at each other, and then at their teacher. The decision was unspoken and unanimous. About five minutes later, after the tools were put away and the payments rendered, they said their goodbyes cheerfully and wandered into the streets of Konoha, their sensei in tow. The vibrant roads and colorful markets soon swallowed them. Sakura was enjoying the sound of coins in her pocket. She could buy something. A new outfit, maybe, or more kunai. The problem of her sensei and his teammate was pushed to the back of her mind.

"A month and a half of D-Ranks," Sasuke finally spoke up, and Sakura instinctively looked at him, stopping in the middle of the road. Obito did too, and Naruto, who had been happily chattering to their teacher, hushed up. "Naruto might be right, you know," Sasuke continued. "We are ready, Obito. It's time to send us on a C-Rank mission."

"That's Obito- _Sensei_ to you, little guy," Obito said lightheartedly, and Sasuke snorted. "Though…"

Naruto rushed into the gap. "That's two of us! What, you think we can't handle one?"

"Hmm." Obito paused again. "I wonder-"

Sakura knew what she had to say.

"I think we're ready." It was quick, but sincere. Her sensei's eyes flickered over her in momentary surprise.

' _I think I'm ready_ , _'_ is what she knew everyone else was hearing. That's why they'd been waiting, after all. Sakura had no illusions. Sasuke and Naruto were already far ahead of her; one of them had the Sharingan, and the other was the Hokage's son. She'd started behind, and was barely keeping up as it was. The four minutes at the bottom of the lake seemed years ago, instead of hardly an hour.

"See? Sakura says so too!" Naruto said with a wide smile.

Obito scratched the back of his head, regarding his team with warm eyes. But he was calculating something. Sakura could see it as clear as day, and she knew that if she could then her teammates certainly could as well. His other hand unconsciously brushed over the hilt of the short sword he always had strapped to his back.

"What the hell," he said. "We had to turn in this mission anyway."

Naruto whooped, Sasuke smiled, and Sakura tried to do the same, ignoring the prickling in her gut.

###

"A C-rank, huh?"

The man at the desk today was their old teacher Iruka, as luck would have it. Sakura was very familiar with this room by now; it was where genin were assigned their peacetime missions. The room was spacious and open, with plentiful windows and hardwood floors. There wasn't much here besides desks and paperwork, and it was constantly bustling with shinobi doing their day's duties. Iruka leaned back in his uncomfortable looking chair, crossing his arms. He gazed steadily at Sakura's sensei, his face set in a neutral expression. "We actually just got one, less than an hour ago. By carrier-bird, even."

"Oh?" Obito asked. "What was it?"

"There's a town, out near the border of Suna," Iruka shrugged. "Well, closer to the border than it is to Konoha, at least. It's called…" He shuffled through one of the stacks of paper, extracting a particular ruffled one, and squinted at it. His scar crumpled slightly. "Ah, 'Kami no Sota.'"

"Paper Hill?" Naruto scrunched his face up, and Iruka nodded.

"Yeah. It produces a ton of printing presses, amongst other exports," the chunin said in a business-like manner. "A lot of their merchants, along with their shipments, have been going missing. Usually when they head east, towards Konohagakure. They think it's a bandit group, probably not too large, but definitely hidden in the forest."

"Hmm." Obito tapped his foot. "Anything else?"

"Nothing that you'd like," Iruka said.

"C'mon, some bandits?" Naruto said. "That sounds perfect!"

Sasuke agreed monosyllabically, and Obito glanced at Sakura. She tried to look unconcerned, and nodded. Bandits, she could easily handle. A full grown man without chakra training wasn't much threat to a genin. And besides, Obito-sensei would be there. It sounded like the perfect mission.

She'd even get to leave the village!

That thought brought a bit of an excited flush to her face, and Obito turned back to Iruka with a grin.

"Alright," he said, extending his hand to accept the mission scroll. Iruka handed it over with a slight, professional smile. "We'll take it."

"Have fun." Iruka's more sardonic side poked through for a moment, but Obito didn't seem to care. He spun back to his charges.

"Alright, it's not quite noon yet!" he said with the unmistakable air of command, and his genin snapped to attention. Sakura in particular paid very close attention; Obito almost never talked like this. "Kami no Sota is about a day away from here; we'll be leaving the village at one'o'clock. I want to see you all at the West Gate then; bring enough material for two days, and whatever other supplies you'll need." Naruto was practically jumping up and down in joy, while Sasuke stoically absorbed their sensei's words.

Obito grinned. "It'll be like a camping trip. Except there'll probably be horrible-smelling men trying to stab us. Keep that in mind." He tapped two fingers to his hitai-ate. "See you in an hour and some!"

And then, he vanished.

###

It took Sakura about twenty minutes to make her way back to her house. When she got there, marched up the stairs to the door, and pushed it open, she found her father tinkering with something at the kitchen table.

"Hey honey!" he called out as she closed the door, not looking up. He was rubbing something that looked like oil into the hinge of the scissor sword he carried into the field with him; he must have recently returned from a mission. He held the weapon up and the blade extended, folding out and adding another half-meter of steel to the sword. Sakura's father nodded with satisfaction, flipping the sword back into its unfolded state, and turned to look at her with a grin that his daughter had always deemed 'goofy.' "You're home early."

"I have a mission!" Sakura said, trying and failing not to sound too excited.

"Oh yeah? That's great honey," her father said distractedly, washing his hands in the sink. "Another D-Rank, I bet?"

"Nope!" Sakura said as her father shut the tap off. "A C-Rank! We get to leave the village and everything."

"Huh!" her father said, turning to meet her. He was still grinning, but it was somehow wider. "That's fantastic! Where are you headed?"

"Some little town to the west," Sakura said, walking through the kitchen to reach the stairs going up to her room. "Paper Hill. They've had some merchants go missing."

"Oh yeah?" her father said as her foot came down on the first step. "That should be exciting. Your first time out of the village and everything."

"Uh-huh," Sakura said, not really paying attention, and her father chuckled.

"Well hey, poke me before you leave, kay?" he said, stretching. "I'm pooped. Tokubestu Anko's a harsh captain."

Sakura blinked, just reaching the top of the stairs. She called back down them as she got to her room.

"You were on a mission, right?"

Her father grunted affirmatively. She heard him settle down on the couch and groan, the familiar sound of straining springs warning her that the short green thing was growing closer and closer to its expiration date every day. "We were cleaning up some rogue mercenaries. Ever since that dwarf Gato's organization went down, there've been ass-" He caught himself, and Sakura giggled. "There've been guys who think they're tough wandering up north. They make trouble; we get hired to come and persuade them to not."

"Doesn't sound so bad," Sakura said loudly, opening her door. "I'll be down in a bit to say goodbye!" Her father's exaggerated snore answered her, and she closed the door behind her.

"Now," she muttered to herself, looking around her pristine room, with the exception of one desk where all the messes seemed to end up. "What to take."

It took her about fifteen minutes to get everything together into a small backpack. Two changes of clothes, a knife-sharpener, a bedroll, about forty kunai, fifteen explosive tags, four ration packs, a medical kit, some tape, and five feet of coiled steel wire. She also managed to shove in a canteen; just in case. She packed it all like a shinobi should, and tested it by throwing the bag three feet straight up several times. Nothing rattled or sloshed, and the fourth time she caught it she nodded with satisfaction.

She slung it over her back. Not too heavy either. Perfect.

Sakura sighed, feeling the weight on her back, and made her way back downstairs. She closed the door quietly, and made her way down the stairs without a sound; if her father was napping, she didn't want to disturb him, even if he'd wanted to say goodbye. He deserved some rest.

Kizashi wasn't napping on the couch though. He was lying there with his eyes closed, but Sakura could tell her father was completely awake. He had his hands folded over a small metal tin on his stomach.

"Hey." He heard her coming and opened his eyes, despite her having made no noise. Sakura smiled at him, and he grinned back. "I made something for you." He lifted the tin. "Just something to munch on, and a little besides. I figure you might need it."

"Thanks dad," Sakura said, taking the tin respectfully. She secured it in one of the pack's side-pockets, and gave her father a peck on the forehead. He closed his eyes again.

"Have a good time, okay?" he said sleepily. "And stay safe. It's a wide world out there."

"I promise, dad," Sakura smiled. "I'll have Obito-sensei with me, anyway."

Her father grunted. "Oh yeah." He chuckled. "You'll be fine."

"Love you."

"Love you more."

###

It was nearly dark by the time Team Seven made it to Kami no Sota. They'd met out in front of Konoha's gate and set off, Naruto and Sasuke chattering loudly, and Obito walking with Sakura as she remained mostly silent. The forests around Konoha were beautiful, and the hidden paths through them easy enough to follow. It wasn't a very exciting trip, but Sakura luxuriated in the sounds of birds and other animals all around her, and her teammates antics.

Naruto and Sasuke were funny to watch. Their conversations pinballed between practical considerations and ridiculous fantasies about overly complicated jutsus with too-long names. Over the course of the trip, Naruto produced two water balloons, and held them in his hand as he walked. The first, he broke on accident when he dropped it after gesticulated wildly towards Sasuke. The second, he eventually lay his other hand over, a concentrated frown falling over his face. Sakura didn't know what he was doing, but it looked like some kind of chakra exercise. When she'd asked Obito, he'd just given her a vague grin and told her it was one of the Yondaime's jutsu.

The idea that Naruto was working on one of the Hokage's jutsu was both impressive, and slightly depressing. Sakura had stayed a bit quiet after that, even though Obito had done his best to tease conversation out of her about her family, or her shinobi skills.

When they reached the town, Sakura's first impression was that it was rather small. She'd lived in Konoha her whole life; buildings stretching as far as the eye could see was the norm for her. This little place, barely more than three dozen buildings and a central river, would barely qualify as a neighborhood in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The sun was almost done setting behind them, and it threw harsh shadows and vibrant red and orange light over the town. The settlement was not, as Sakura had supposed, on top of a hill.

"This is it," her sensei stated, rather obviously.

"I never would have guessed," Sasuke muttered, and Naruto laughed.

"Alright, let's head down," their sensei said. "We're supposed to meet with a man called Kurasen. He'll give us a roof for the night, and point us in the right direction."

"Sweet. Race you there, Sasuke!" Naruto took off with a yell, rushing down the road. Sasuke hesitated for hardly a second before he sprinted after him. Obito watched them go for a moment before snorting.

"They don't even know where they're going," Sakura said, shifting her backpack. "How can they be so confident?"

"They're very sure of themselves," her teacher responded, glancing at her. The coming night made his dark eyes little more than shadows in his face. "It's good for some things, but not so much for others." He sighed. "For example, the whole town will probably know we're here now."

"Is that bad?" Sakura asked.

"No, not bad. Well," Obito amended. "It _could_ be bad. We'll just have to wait and see."

"Hmm," Sakura murmured. She set off after a second, and then realized her teacher wasn't following. She turned to look back at him, and found him considering her thoughtfully. She blinked.

"What?" She tried not to sound worried, but couldn't help just a little leaking out. It felt like she'd done something wrong. She could distantly hear Naruto and Sasuke yelling. Something about cake.

"You know, Sakura," Obito said, "You really remind me of myself sometimes, back when I was a genin."

Sakura paled. Why was her sensei bringing this up now? "R-really?"

"Yeah." Obito sounded almost wistful. "I was a hell of lot louder than you, though; you hardly talked on the way here." Sakura blushed as her teacher continued. "But both my teammates were geniuses at what they did. Compared to them, I didn't have much." Sakura frowned. "I felt like a loser."

The Haruno lowered her head, her gut rolling. "But… your Sharingan…"

Obito snorted. "Pfffft. These thing?" he said, tapping his temple. "They've given me a lot more trouble than you'd think, trust me."

"But… if I'm like you…" Sakura lowered her head even further, feeling sick. She could feel the blood rushing through her head. "I don't have anything like that. I don't have a bloodline. My dad isn't Hokage. I'm just..."

"You think any of that matters?" Obito said kindly. Sakura nodded, just the slight tilt of her head. Her sensei took her step forward and dropped down to one of his knees, bringing his head level with hers. She looked up, meeting his eyes, and Obito smiled. "Let me tell you something, Sakura. Naruto's family, or the Sharingan… in regards to being a shinobi, they're just tools. They don't make you intrinsically better than anyone else."

"But-"

"No." Obito's words were harsh, even if his face was not. "Everyone has something they're talented at. Those two have just been lucky enough to figure out while they were young. And in a way, it's limited them: Sasuke has focused so much on Uchiha tradition that he's failed to consider what will happen when he fights someone who knows that stuff… like me. And Naruto…" he shrugged. "His knowledge of Seals and Jutsu-Shiki is good for his age. He's got loads of natural talent, and help from his parents. But he's never going to be as good as they are. He just doesn't have the kind of patience for that. His real calling lies somewhere else: I'm sure he'll figure out soon enough."

Obito smiled.

"We'll find your tool, Sakura. I don't know what it is, yet. You've got great chakra control. Maybe you'll be a master of genjutsu, or a world-class medic. You could be a fantastic infiltrator, or you'll work on your ninjutsu and become an efficient powerhouse."

Sakura's sensei put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing just slightly.

"You _don't know yet_. And that's okay. You're still young, there's no war on; you have plenty of time."

Obito stood back up, and Sakura watched him speechlessly.

"Now come on," he said with a genuine grin. "Let's go catch up to those two before they do something stupid."

Then he turned, and strode off. Sakura watched his retreating back, stunned. After a moment, she shook her head and went after him. Her head was swimming.

"Ummm..!" she said, not really knowing what she was supposed to say to something like that. "Sensei?"

Obito glanced back at her.

"I…" Sakura choked. "Thanks."

"Anytime," Obito said. "Now c'mon. I wasn't kidding. I don't want them catching anything on fire."

Genin and jonin made their way into Kami no Sota, and behind them the sun finally set.


	6. Eight Minutes

The Bear

Kurasen turned out to be an older man, probably closer to sixty than fifty, with a round, deeply creased face and fantastic posture. Though he wore only a simple workman's shirt and long pants, he nevertheless radiated calm authority. He was rather tall, just over six feet, and there wasn't a speck of hair on his head. He had a lovely voice, Sakura thought, and honest eyes. They compelled her attention as he sat at the head of the table, earnestly speaking with their team's leader.

She and Obito had eventually caught up to Naruto and Sasuke, who had been bickering with an irritated teenager. Obito's casual questions had sent the teen running off to find Kurasen with a bitter frown, and in the lull he had admonished Sakura's teammates. They wanted to make a good impression on the locals, after all. They were being paid for this, he reminded them; clients, and anyone connected to them, should always be treated with respect. Naruto had blushed, but Sasuke had just nodded his head.

A minute or two later, Kurasen had arrived with an uncertain grin. Obito's disarming manner had soon put him to ease, though, and he had invited the jonin and genin to his home. He could explain the issue in more detail there, he said with a smile.

The man's house wasn't very large, only a little bigger than Sakura's apartment, but it was extremely clean and filled with attractive furniture. There had been a simple meal: rice, meat, and some vegetables, laid out on a rough wooden table in the kitchen, and Kurasen had implored they take some of it. Everyone but Obito had done so, with Naruto loudly thanking the man.

Now, the genin were gathered around the table, their packs left in the entryway, and Obito was in conversation with their host.

"So they just vanish wholesale," Sakura's sensei confirmed. Kurasen nodded.

"Completely," he said in his deep voice. "Transport, merchants, cargo. All gone. There's rarely even any sign they were taken in the first place."

"Ah," Obito said, not quite grinning despite his eyes suggesting he could have been. "So there is _some_ sign."

"Blood," Kurasen said flatly, and all the shinobi at the table perked up for a second. Naruto shot a glance at Sasuke, and then at Sakura. She shrugged back. If a group of bandits, or maybe even some rogue shinobi, were picking off a caravan, then blood was to be expected. She was less uneasy with the notion than she thought she'd be.

"Well, that sounds about right," Obito said, half-jokingly. Kurasen shook his head, deathly serious, and Obito's eyes narrowed.

"I don't think you understand," the tall man said, glancing back at Sakura and her teammates. His face betrayed his uncertainty. "They're just children. Are you sure-?"

"Hey!" Naruto shot to his feet, bumping the table. "Who're you-!"

Obito shut him down with a glare, and the Yondaime's son shrunk back into his seat, blushing furiously.

"They're my team," Obito said, looking back to Kurasen. "And they may look like children-" Sasuke made a noise Sakura could only describe as a chuff, and it nearly made her giggle, "but they are shinobi. Anything you tell me, you can tell them."

Kurasen still looked skeptical, but Obito nodded, and he shrugged and began speaking again.

"I don't mean a little blood," he said. "Three groups have gone missing, ten people total. The first two vanished with barely a trace. But the third…" he frowned, and his voice dropped a little. Sakura had to lean in to hear him better. "The third was when we knew we needed the help of ninja."

"How much blood, Kurasen?" Obito asked. The man's eyes narrowed.

"A lot," he said. It was very clear by his voice that he thought "a lot" was completely unable to get across just how much blood there had been. "I don't know if there's even that much blood inside a person, or four of them. It soaked the ground into mud, painted the trees nearby. The whole place was red, and the smell…" he paused, taking a deep breath through his nose, and one of his hands clenched into a fist. "We couldn't even tell if it had been Haruka's group, but it was on their route, and she never came back."

Sakura blinked. She could see Sasuke was frowning, his hands coming up to lace in front of his mouth; Naruto was behind her, so she had no idea how he was reacting. The thought of that much blood sent her stomach turning. What could do something like that?

"I see," Obito said, leaning back. "Thank you."

The room fell into silence for a minute, and Sakura's eyes strayed around it, trying to expel the image of a road made muddy with blood from her mind. There was a cabinet across from her, filled with pictures. Most of them were of Kurasen and two others: a woman with long brown hair and a boy with striking orange eyes. They must have been his family.

She hoped none of them had been in the caravans.

As was characteristic of him, Naruto broke the silence.

"Can you show us where?" he asked confidently, and Kurasen's head swung toward him. The older man frowned.

"It's quite late," he rumbled. "I don't think-"

"We can see in the dark," Naruto said matter of factly. "And we're not too tired." Sakura was watching him with interest now, along with Sasuke. Obito cocked his head. "And this jerk, and that bigger jerk," Naruto continued, pointing to Sasuke and then Obito, "have special eyes. They might be able to find something you guys couldn't."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather wait till morning?" Kurasen asked. "I have some spare beds-?"

"We really appreciate the offer." Sakura surprised herself when she spoke up. "We really do. But Naruto's got the right idea; the longer we wait, the harder it would be to find anything. If we can, we should go tonight."

Kurasen watched her, and Sakura resisted the urge to lower her head. _'A little girl with pink hair and too big a forehead,'_ she thought he must be saying to himself. _'Why is she talking at all?'_ The man turned to Obito with an inquiring look, and their sensei smiled, activating one of his eyes. The tomoe of the Sharingan spun into being, the eye gaining its red and black sheen.

Kurasen blinked, and then nodded. "Alright," he declared, pushing himself to his feet. "Let me get my coat then. It's not very far from here. Just thirty minutes or so."

Team Seven rose along with him.

###

It turned out that what Kurasen and his companions could cover in thirty minutes, shinobi could easily cover in about five. When Obito finally lowered the man off his back, Kurasen was somewhat pale.

"That was… fast," he said, his complexion shifting to greenish for a moment. He took a deep breath or two of the crisp air, and it seemed to put him back on his feet. "Alright. It's just over here. Follow me." He set off at a brisk pace, his boots crushing loose twigs and pebbles underfoot, and the ninja walked after him, unconsciously falling into a simple diamond pattern with Sakura on the right, Sasuke on the left, Naruto at the back, and Obito and Kurasen at the head.

Sakura had brought fifteen kunai, three explosive tags, and the tin her father had given her. The first two she figured were just a healthy precaution, and the tin was for in case they didn't find anything; at least they'd have something to eat. She could tell from the way it shifted in her taped-down pocket that it was full of food, but she was content to let it be a surprise.

She hadn't seen what her teammates had grabbed from their packs, but Naruto had another one of those water balloons. He was focused on it, his eyes practically bugging out as his hands encircled it, while Sasuke walked with cool alertness, his eyes darting back and forth. All of them could see through the darkness perfectly well now that they were channeling some chakra; Kurasen was probably limited to a dozen meters or so, out here away from any artificial light on a cloudy night, but to Sakura it seemed like it was the tail end of evening.

Chakra really was amazing, whenever she thought about it.

"It was right up here," Kurasen said, slowing down. He squinted, before nodding. "Yeah, just over there." He pointed farther down the dirt road, at a spot that was darker than the rest. In the night, it seemed like a patch of independent shadow.

Sasuke moved ahead, activating his eyes as Sakura held back with Naruto. Obito stayed with Kurasen as the younger Uchiha scanned the ground, dropping into a squat. He turned back to the team with a frown.

"I've got something," he said, standing and pointing towards the woods. "Bloody footprints. Looks like five sets. Obito, can you see anything more? They stop at the edge of the road."

Obito peered, his own Sharingan activating. "Hmm." Sakura tried to suppress a bout of inferiority. What she would give to be able to do something like that. "Sasuke, look closer."

"It doesn't work like that," Sasuke said flatly. Obito chuckled.

"I think it does," he said good-naturedly. "The blood vanishes, but the depression in the dirt doesn't."

Kurasen made a noise of disbelief. "This happened three days ago. There's no way-"

"No, you're right," Obito said, turning to him. The man stared into Sakura's sensei's red and black eyes, practically entranced. "It's not like just seeing footprints. It's the way the dirt's spread, how some plants are only just growing back up, the angle of some grass…" He shook his head. "You know what, it's hard to explain. Just let me just assure you that I do in fact see a trail, and that most of the world very badly wants to yank these eyes out of my head for just that reason."

That got a grim chuckle out of Kurasen. "I'll take your word for it, then," he said. "In any case, what now?"

"We follow it!" Naruto said cheerily. "Sasuke, you can see it now right?"

"Yes," Sasuke confirmed begrudgingly. "I know what to look for; I can see it."

"Great!" Obito said with almost mocking cheer. "Sasuke, you lead on the rest of you midgets. I'll take Kurasen back, and then come rejoin you. Maybe if we're lucky we can wrap this up tonight."

The older Uchiha gestured, and their client clambered onto his back hesitatingly. "Could we perhaps go just a _bit_ slower this time?" he asked, just a bit of levity lightening his voice. It seemed like seeing Obito at work had brought him some peace. "I just ate, after all."

"You got it," Obito answered. "Try not to do anything stupid!" he yelled at his team, before running off with Kurasen on his back. The genin watched their sensei go, Naruto cocking an eyebrow.

"Does he really think we'd do something stupid?" Naruto asked. "What could we even do out here? We're in the middle of the woods!"

"I'm sure you'd find a way," Sasuke deadpanned, turning back to the trail only he could see. Sakura laughed, and Naruto snorted.

"You're just jealous. The both of you! Just watch! I bet I'll find whatever the hell it is we're looking for before your fancy eyes do," he declared.

"Of course you will, Naruto," Sakura said, smiling a little. Sasuke began stalking into the woods, his gaze locked on the ground, and his teammates followed him.

They walked in silence for about a minute, listening intently to the forest and not making a sound with their steps. Sasuke stopped twice, looking around slowly, before continuing. Sakura figured that it couldn't be easy following whatever trail Sasuke could see out here; the trees were thick, sometimes grouping no more than an arm-length apart, and the grass was knee-high in places. The constant buzz of nightlife, insects and small animals, surrounded them. It was actually incredibly relaxing. Sakura felt a bit of tension seep out of her shoulders.

"Hold up," Naruto suddenly stopped, grabbing her shoulder. Sakura froze at the contact, looking back at him, but her teammate wasn't looking at her. He was staring up into the canopy, his eyes half lidded. They darted left, and then right, and he turned his head slightly. Sasuke stopped, looking back at the both of them.

"Listen," Naruto said quietly. "Do you hear that?"

Sakura listened, and Sasuke too.

It took a moment, but she heard it. Off in the distance, to the south, there was a rumbling noise, like a small earthquake, and a _crack-thump_ : the sound of multiple trees falling.

"What…" she whispered, and as she did everything around her went silent. All the insects, small animals, even a deer; they all went as quiet as the grave at the same time, as if by some invisible claxon, and moved north. The genin could hear them streaming past them, rustling the grass and snapping low-lying tree branches.

"They're relocating," Sasuke said.

"Should we follow them?" Sakura asked.

"No. We're not some animals; we're ninja," Naruto declared. "Whatever that is, it's fast, and it's coming this way. I say we get up in the trees and wait for it."

The genin all glanced at each other, and came to a hesitant agreement. They leapt upwards, alighting on higher branches, and settled in to wait. Sakura focused on her hearing, attempting the same trick she had with her lungs. The crashing of falling trees was getting closer, and there was something behind it. It almost sounded like a burbling creek.

No, not a creek. It was close now, closer than she'd thought. It was like a pant. A ragged, watery pant.

"What the hell?" Sasuke said, barely audible, and Sakura scanned the forest, trying to find where he was looking. It took less than a second. There was a huge, dark shape, barreling through the forest at them, like a living shadow. There was slick darkness covering it, dripping from its flank and masking its muzzle. One burning red eye, lacking a pupil, seemed to glare directly at her.

" _Bear_!" she shouted, and the huge creature, nearly twenty feet tall, smashed through the last of the trees between them and it. Naruto squawked in surprise, and the beast's lone eye snapped to focus on him. It snarled, an avalanche of noise, and rumbled forward, its paws tearing grout gouges from the ground. Blood dripped from its open mouth like a stream of thick red paint, some flecking onto its forelegs and the rest slicking the ground beneath it red.

"Oh _shit_ ," Naruto cursed, and for a ludicrous second Sakura thought about reprimanding him. "That's _nasty._ "

"Heads up," Sasuke said. He didn't sound worried, but there was a certain edge to his voice. "That thing is faster than it should be."

The bear charged forward, slamming its head into the tree Sasuke was perched in. There was a massive _crack_ and the whole thing tilted, roots ripping out of the ground. But it didn't fall. Smashing its skull into the tree didn't seem to faze the bear whatsoever; it backed off, roaring in fury, and swiped at the base of the tipping tree. There was an explosion of bark and pulp, and the tree began falling in earnest, toppling towards the one Naruto was perched in.

"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled, pulling a kunai from a pocket. She hadn't see Sasuke fall; where had he gone?

"Oh jeez!" Naruto yelped, jumping away as the tree reduced the branch he'd been sitting on to splinters. He alighted on a nearby tree and turned, his eyes narrowed. "That thing really is-!"

Sasuke came plummeting through the night, a wispy shadow with two bright red highlights in the darkness, and landed atop the bear's head. The thing screamed, rearing up, but before it could do anything more Sasuke buried two kunai, held in each hand, up to their handles in its skull. There was a great spurt of blood and a disgusting _squelch_ of a sound, and the bear's roar petered out. It toppled forward, landing flat on its belly, and Sasuke gracefully dismounted as it fell.

"…pissed," Naruto finished, his eyes wide. Sakura dropped her hand, and the kunai it was holding, to her side. The forest seemed quieter than ever as Sasuke took a step or two towards them.

"Man," Naruto said. "Don't you think that was a little much?"

Sasuke shrugged. "It was crazed with pain," he said, a little stone-faced. "When something dangerous goes crazy, you put it down. That's just how it is."

"It was just a bear…" Naruto muttered, staring at the enormous corpse. Sakura found herself nodding. It _had_ just been a bear. Twenty feet tall, and grievously injured, but a bear nonetheless. It hadn't been _that_ much of a threat to them-

The bear wheezed, and blood pulsed from its side. Sakura blinked, and Sasuke started turning, confused at the noise.

The animal struck out faster than Sakura thought possible, a flash of claws in the night, and Sasuke tumbled forward with a hiss.

"Sa-!" Naruto started to shout.

"Just a scratch!" Sasuke interrupted him, spinning about so fast the dirt around his feet was thrown out in a wide crescent. There were two gashes ripped in the back of his shirt, but he wasn't lying; he was hardly scratched himself, with just two long lines of blood slowly flowing but fingertip-deep slashes. It was hardly anything.

"How the hell is it alive!?" Sakura asked shrilly, watching the bear with alarm as it groaned and dragged itself back on all fours. Sasuke's kunai were still buried in its skull, and more and more blood gushed from its mouth and the hole in its side, but it was gurgling and _alive_ all the same. That was impossible. It had two knives _buried in its brain_.

"You _missed_!" Naruto shouted.

"I didn't _miss_!" Sasuke yelled back. "That thing should be dead!"

"Well, it's _not_!" Sakura interrupted the both of them. She raised her kunai; less than half a foot of steel seemed completely inadequate when placed in front of the bear, which had finally made it to its feet, huffing blood and glaring balefully. "What do we do?"

"Kill it again!" Naruto decided for them, and Team Seven spread out, loosely encircling the thing. Sakura gulped, but her hand stayed steady. It was just an animal, and her team was here. She could handle this.

There was an awful lot of blood though. Maybe this bear had been the one behind the disappearances? Though a bear wouldn't be taking the shipments as well, and it couldn't have been moving around for three days with these injuries…

Then again, it shouldn't have been moving around with two knives in its brain. Maybe there was something to that theory.

The bear went after Sasuke first; maybe it had realized he had been the one who'd stabbed it the first time. Its single red eye seemed a perfect contrast to Sasuke's Sharingan in the dark, but the Uchiha darted around its almost clumsily blows, leaping over a low sweep and rolling out of the way of an overhand blow that left a paw-shaped crater in the ground. He slashed at the paws as they missed him with another kunai, but the deep knife wounds hardly seemed to slow the animal down.

As Sasuke dodged, Naruto moved in from the side, sprinting forward. While the bear completed its overhand smash, the blond leapt into the air and delivered a flying kick to its side. The bear hardly flinched, but it slid a foot or two to the left, towards Sakura. When it started to turn towards Naruto, he kicked again as it fell, smashing the animal a couple inches upward. Sasuke capitalized on the beast's moment of dizziness to hurl a kunai at its eye, but the animal jerked away and the knife struck its forehead.

The bear roared, spinning its whole body. Sakura ducked beneath its flailing back legs, feeling the enormous air pressure of the near miss, but the bear smashed its bulk into Naruto, flinging him to the ground. He rolled as he landed, but slid a couple meters backwards anyway, flattening all the grass in his path and leaving a stream of obscenities in his wake.

Sasuke was under the bear, and it tried and failed to trample him, stomping wildly. The Uchiha peppered its legs and belly with stabs, but accomplished nothing more than flesh wounds, which the bear seemed to completely ignore. Sakura, however, was on the side of the animal where it was particularly injured.

It was clear to her now that much of the blood on the animal's fur was coming from one particular wound, high on its left flank. There was a _hole_ there, a great gash in the skin where the flesh and musculature had been partially peeled back. It would have probably been the death of a normal animal, but this bear clearly wasn't normal.

Seeing the hole, Sakura got a disgusting idea.

She drew another kunai for her other hand and took a deep breath through her mouth, gathering as much courage as possible.

Then she shrieked like a terrified pre-teen girl (for indeed, that was precisely what she was) and leapt forward, burying both knives in the bear's side, right at the bottom of the hole. There was no tough skin and thick muscle there to catch her knives; they sunk in as if it were butter and blood –sticky and _hot_ so much hotter than Sakura had expected– poured over her hands.

The bear screamed, and Sakura screamed back. She planted her feet on the bear's hide and _pulled_ downwards, yanking the kunai down the monster's side.

There was a tremendous ripping noise, and the knives tore a gaping gash in the bear's side, opening its gut to the cold night. Something thick and rubbery uncoiled, brushing against Sakura's thigh, and her gut did several somersaults in a row. She hurled herself backwards, away from the animal, and landed with a thud in the cold, wet grass. It was a relief from the bear's unnatural burning heat, and she sat there for a moment in near shock, watching the animal screech and stumble clumsily away from her as its guts unlooped from the greatly widened hole in its side.

Something in her head clicked, a gear catching and refusing to keep up its normal operation. The smell of the bear's innards washed over her, like a busted sewer system filled with rotting crows and god knew what else. Her whole body tightened, goosebumps rising on her skin.

_'This is not how I thought this day would go.'_

Naruto gave a triumphant yell from somewhere Sakura couldn't see. It sounded almost like "Take this!" As he did, Sasuke darted out from under the bear, coming to a skidding stop next to Sakura.

A moment after he did, there was a flash of light and a _wham_. Smoke exploded out from the bear's mouth along with a particularly violent spray of blood, and its lone red eye disappeared in a burst of yellow fire. The animal screamed one last time and toppled over on its side, smoke drifting from its eye socket.

Naruto leapt over the body with a wide grin, his hand covered in unidentifiable grime. "I had no idea water could be _explosive_!" he said excitedly. " _This_ _changes everything_!"

The bear's guts kept leaking from it in a slurry of pink flesh and sluggish, nearly black blood, and for a moment Sakura felt lightheaded. The smell was even worse than before, and her legs drew up protectively on reflex. She felt her gorge rise, but Naruto didn't seem to notice the mess behind him.

"What did you-" Sasuke started to ask.

"I blew up that water balloon inside its mouth!" Naruto proclaimed proudly. "And it worked! Man, mom is gonna _love_ -" He paused, tilting his head, and his expression became a little more concerned. "Sakura, are you-?"

It was too much. Sakura threw up, a sudden burst of mostly clear vomit to her side, away from her teammates. She shuddered, disgusted at the burn in her throat, and with a gag turned back to the boys.

Suddenly, she was mortified. She lowered her head, doing her best to disappear between her knees. "I'm sorry," she practically whispered, mortally embarrassed. She almost wished she'd drop dead along with the bear. "Just… oh god, there's so much blood. And that smell-"

Both her teammates were frozen, obviously surprised. And disgusted. How could they not be disgusted with her. But it was barely a second later that Naruto stepped forward, his hands up placatingly.

"Hey hey, hey," Naruto said, coming to stand in front of her. Sasuke just watched, looking the slightest bit concerned, occasionally looking back to the bear to make sure it was still lying still. "It's all good, it's okay," Naruto said, kneeling down. "That thing was _-"_ He finally noticed all the blood, coating Sakura's arms almost up to the elbow. He cracked a grin, clearly trying to cheer her up. "Man, you really got in there. Listen, it's okay. I bet if I'd gotten like that, I'd be throwing up too."

' _You don't mean that.'_ It was a mean thought, but Sakura couldn't help it, even as she looked up. _'You're the Hokage's son. You wouldn't throw up because of something like that_.'

Naruto stuck his hand out; he didn't seem to care that both of Sakura's were slick with the bear's blood.

"C'mon, get up. I got my canteen; we can clean up a little. I bet Obito will be back soon anyway."

"Naruto, I can't. All the-"

Naruto ignored Sakura and took one of her hands, pulling her up. She let herself come to her feet, feelings Naruto's hand in hers. It wasn't burning like the blood; it was just warm, and comfortably solid.

"…Thanks," she said after a moment. Being on her feet seemed to have cleared her head, at least a little.

"Hey, don't mention it," Naruto said with a good-natured grin. "I'm not just gonna leave a teammate on the ground."

There was a comfortable silence carried with that sentence, but Sasuke mercilessly cut it to ribbons before it could settle.

"Obito is gonna kill us," he muttered, inspecting one of his kunai.

"Hey, it's not our fault some giant psycho bear came out of nowhere!" Naruto insisted with a frown.

"We could have run," Sasuke pointed out. "Obito would have wanted us to run, actually."

"Pssh." Naruto clearly didn't think much of that. "Why? We handled it just fine."

"…We might not have," Sakura said quietly, and Naruto shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe. But we did, so that's what's matters," he grinned, before looking back at the animal seriously. "Still… Obito might kill us, yeah."

"We'll just blame it on you," Sasuke suggested, and Sakura managed a little laugh at Naruto's rather loud " _What_?"

"What."

The flat echo of Naruto's words spun Team Seven around, and they found themselves staring into the baffled face of their sensei. As he was wont to, the man had appeared seemingly out of thin air. He stared first at them, and then past them to the corpse of the bear in total disbelief.

"I was gone for _eight minutes_ ," he said softly as he turned to Naruto. The words were directed as much to himself as they were to them. "How did this happen?"

"Well, there was a bear," Sasuke said in a matter of fact tone.

"And Sasuke stabbed it twice in the brain and it didn't die," Naruto added in.

"So I uh, tore it open while Sasuke was distracting it," Sakura said, fighting her gorge for a moment at the thought, "and then Naruto blew up its head."

Obito stared at them. After a moment, his gaze shifted to Sakura.

"Are you okay?" he asked, quite seriously.

Sakura nodded. "I'm fine," she said, and she was reasonably sure she wasn't lying. "Sasuke got hit, actually, but nothing happened to me. But I, uh…" she blushed a little, and withheld a shudder at the memory. "Threw up a little. It just smelled really… really bad."

Obito wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, I can tell," he said, but there was a little smile to accompany it. "Sasuke, you got hit?"

"It surprised me after I stabbed it," Sasuke said, turning a little to show Obito the scratches on his back. They had already mostly stopped bleeding; just two angry red lines remained. "I thought it was down. My mistake."

"Well…" Obito murmured, looking from the marks back to the bear. "Damn. Naruto, you're good, right?"

"'Course!" Naruto gave him a thumbs up, and Obito sighed.

"So much for a simple C-Rank," he said begrudgingly. "Then again, the blood should have tipped me off. Okay, how about-"

There was a gurgling groan, and behind them, something massive shifted. Sakura and her teammates looked back to see the bear stirring, its ruined head flopping from left to right.

"Sh-" Naruto shut himself up before Obito could. "It's still alive?!"

Obito narrowed his eyes. "That's wrong."

"It doesn't die, sensei," Sakura said, keeping an eye on the bear. It seemed mostly helpless now, with the gaping gash in its side and its eyeless state, but it was still moving with purpose. "No matter what we do to it, it doesn't die. It showed up heavily injured, too."

"Weird," her sensei said thoughtfully. "I've never heard of something like that."

"What should we do with it?" Sasuke asked. He didn't seem concerned by the bear. He probably didn't regard it as a threat now that it was so crippled. Despite the fact it had attacked them, Sakura felt a pang of sympathy for the massive animal. "We can't just leave it lying around. And if it won't die…"

He trailed off meaningfully, but Obito shook his head. "No way am I dumping that thing in Kamui," he said. "That place already gets cluttered. I have a better solution." He clapped his hands together in a simple prayer-like pose, and then rapidly ran through several handsigns, too fast for Sakura to make them all out. Then, he bent and flattened his hands on the ground.

"Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi," he intoned clearly, and there was a rumble, completely unlike the bear's growling. The earth cracked, fissures racing away from Obito's hands towards the animal. When they reached it, the ground beneath the bear collapsed. It fell with a surprised moan, landing out of sight a moment later, and then the earth crumbled over it, leaving a mound of plain dirt in the middle of the grassy, torn up field. An impromptu and rapid burial.

"Whoa," Naruto said, and Sakura knew he was legitimately impressed. She was too; she hadn't expected Obito to pull out such an easy fix, even if he was a famous jonin. "That's handy. Where'd you pick that one up?"

"Oh." Something about Obito's voice seemed off to Sakura; like he was talking to someone else for a second, before actually focusing on Naruto. "A long time ago."

Where the bear had been, there was nothing but an unmarked grave. It was probably still alive down there, Sakura realized, alone under the earth. But maybe that was better for it down there in the silent dark then up here, crippled and blind in the cold air. There was a kind of peace to that.

"So," Sasuke said. "Are we going to figure out where it came from?"

Sakura blinked. She hadn't considered the notion, but now that her teammate had said it… "It did leave a very obvious trail," she said, half to herself and half to her teacher. "And it was _very_ unusual."

"No way." Obito's mouth thinned into a line. "You guys wandered off for less than ten minutes and ran into a giant immortal bear. That kinda luck screams 'Don't investigate potentially suspicious activity in the dark.'"

"So what?" Naruto asked. "We're just gonna leave it for a day? Go back and have a good night's sleep?"

Obito crossed his arms cooly. "Optimally, yes."

"That's dumb and you know it," Naruto shot back, taking a step forward. Sakura watched him argue with their sensei with an edge of discomfort. Going up against a more experienced shinobi, even just through words, seemed a dangerous thing to her. "We can't just let a trail go cold like that. We've got to at least _check_ wherever this thing came from."

"I don't think-"

"He's right," Sasuke cut in.

" _Shhh_." Obito flashed his Sharingan, and Sasuke shut up. " _As I was saying_ , you guys have already had a long night. I don't think it's a good idea to just be rushing off. We've got no idea what we could find."

"But you'll be with us," Sakura said, and Obito turned to her with a startled jerk of his head. She did her best to gather her thoughts as her teammates watched. "Sensei, I think you're worrying too much. It was just a bear, even if it was weird. It's just common sense to check out wherever it came from, assuming it's not _too_ far. We could find something critical to the mission that might not be there in the morning." She looked around, and down at her bloody forearms. "And we… we handled ourselves fine. With you there, I don't think we'd have to worry about anything."

Her teacher let that one sink in, turning her words over.

"Only if you're all sure," he decided, in a tone that clearly showed he already knew the answer. Sakura nodded first, followed by Naruto and then Sasuke, who merely inclined his head.

"Alright," Obito said, blowing a puff of air between his lips. "It'll be a little adventure then. 'Where'd the zombie-bear come from.' Jeez…" He pinned them with serious looks. "You guys are gonna stay behind me. You know that, right?"

"Yup."

"Definitely."

Sasuke just grunted.

"Fantastic," Obito said, striding past them. "Let's get going, then. The night's still young."

Team Seven set off down the path of destruction the bear had left, an avenue of toppled trees and ravaged earth. As they passed over the bear's grave, Sakura wondered if it could hear them moving over it.

"Sorry," she whispered, but the sound was swallowed by the night.


	7. Beneath The Lake

The Temple

Obito peered into the dark waters of the lake, his Sharingan idly rotating.

"Well that's ominous," he said dryly.

Naruto laughed. "I'll say," he said. "You think it came out of there?"

The path of destruction left by the undying bear had been easy to follow, a clean road of trampled trees and disturbed earth cut clean through the forest. But this was where the trail ended: on the shores of a large, dark lake. The lake was a messy oval shape, and Team Seven had found themselves on one of the long sides of it. Sakura guessed the opposite shore was about a kilometer away.

She was kneeling, her arms pressed into the water, her hands scrubbing her forearms. The water was dark enough that the blood washing away wasn't noticeable: the color of the lake didn't change. It was also warmer than Sakura would have expected. She'd been prepared for a chill, but instead the temperature was almost pleasant.

"Sakura," Obito said, placing his hand on her shoulder. She looked back at him in surprise. "Take your hands out of there."

She blinked. "Sensei?"

His mouth was a firm line. "I'm serious. And don't get any of the water in your eyes, or your mouth."

"Is something wrong?" she asked, standing up. Her arms were mercifully clean: she'd been unable to ignore the sticky blood staining them the whole way here, resisting the urge to scratch.

"With the water," Obito confirmed. "Sasuke, do you see it?"

The younger Uchiha had been staring at the lake in silence, and he shook his head. "I… don't know." His expression twisted. "It looks like chakra. Almost. But I've never seen anything like it."

"You've never had to," Obito said. "That's natural energy: a lot of it." Naruto gave him a questioning look, and Obito grinned. "It's chakra produced by the earth: rocks, trees, whatever you can think of. You should ask your dad about it. His master specializes in it." The Uchiha's grin disappeared. "But there's way too much for a little lake like this, and there's something off about it. I don't know what would happen if some got into your chakra system, Sakura, so let's just not risk it."

Sakura nodded, suppressing more questions. Why had she never heard of Natural Energy before now? It certainly hadn't been included in the academy curriculum.

"So what could cause something like that?" she asked instead. "Filling a lake with natural energy?"

Obito shrugged. "I have no idea. But if I had to guess, I'd say this might have been what caused our immortal bear. Nature energy can have some very strange effects, and this energy is stranger than most. It's quite possible the bear drank from this lake and ended up…" he searched for the word, crossing his arms. "Infected with something."

"Jeez," Naruto murmured, picking up a rock and tossing it into the water. "So now what?"

"We have to find out what's altering the lake," Sasuke said, and Sakura found herself nodding along.

"It's dangerous," she agreed, and Obito turned to her with an unreadable expression. "This close to the town? If some kid comes out here and swallows some of the water, who knows what could happen?"

"Alright then," Obito said neutrally. "How do you think we could go about that?"

Sasuke frowned, while Sakura went red. "Are you actually asking us," Sasuke asked, "or do you already know the answer?"

"Hey," Obito smiled. "You don't think I'm that kinda guy, do you?"

Naruto grumbled. "We should check the lake, duh." Obito turned towards him. "There might be something in it that's causing this."

"And how could we do that safely?" Obito asked, and Naruto groaned.

"C'mon, we're not babies!" he said, his voice rising a little. Sasuke smirked. "You've got shadow clones: you could use them to scout!"

"Oh, that's a good point!" Obito said, feigning surprise, and Sakura couldn't help but laugh. "You'll make a fine ninja yet, Naruto."

Their sensei put his hands together, forming a series of seals too quickly for Sakura to follow, and there was a burst of smoke. It cleared in moments, and a perfect copy of Obito stood alongside the original, arms crossed in the same manner. Sakura had never seen a Kage Bunshin before. She was familiar with ordinary clones, of course, so seeing her sensei duplicated wasn't especially shocking, but the fact that the shadow clone was physically a perfect copy, capable of autonomous action, still made her…

Not uncomfortable, that was too strong a word. Wary might suit the feeling better.

"Get going," Obito said, and the clone wandered into the water without a sound. It took a deep breath, and dove beneath the surface.

"That's so cool," Naruto said with a grin.

"Mm?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto gestured at the water.

"That jutsu," he said. "It's so damn cool."

"Well, you won't be trying it out anytime soon," Obito said with amusement. "The way you manage your chakra, you'd probably end up killing yourself."

"Is it really that intensive?" Sakura asked, rubbing her arms. The water on them had grown cold in the night air, and goosebumps were rising all along her skin. There was a breeze wafting over the lake, and it brought with it the smell of wet grass and the sound of crickets.

"Each kage bunshin created splits your chakra," Obito said, and Naruto's mouth dropped a little. "If you make three, you've split it four ways between yourself and them: that means you're already down to twenty-five percent of whatever you've molded." He glanced at Sasuke. "Even experienced ninja are careful when using it. It can be easy to forget how much chakra you've expended, especially if you're distracted by a battle or an injury, and you could end up knocking yourself out, or worse, with a sloppy clone."

Sakura looked down. That was another jutsu she'd probably never end up using, then. Her chakra levels were merely average, though Obito had told her her control was excellent. There was no way she could justify using such an exhausting jutsu.

"Huh," Naruto said. "I didn't know that."

"That's what I'm here for," Obito said good-naturedly. "Still, don't let that discourage you: they're great in a pinch, and they make excellent scouts."

He suddenly straightened up, his eyes narrowing. "Speaking of which," he said.

"What did it find?" Sasuke asked, ambling over. He'd been peering into the lake while Obito had been talking about the kage bunshin, his red eyes burning into the water.

"There's a cave at the bottom of the lake," Obito said. "It's got air in it, and a chakra trail. Wherever the energy is coming from, it's somewhere in that cave."

Naruto saw the question in Sakura's eyes before Obito did. "Shadow clones return memories when they get dispelled," he whispered to her, and suddenly everything Obito and the Hokage's son had said about scouting took on a new light in Haruno's mind. A perfect replica that could report back just by dispelling itself? That _was_ incredible.

"Well, how are we going to get down there?" she asked, and Naruto grinned at her. "We can't swim in the water, can we?"

"That's the easy part," he said. "Right, Obito?"

"You shouldn't be so cavalier, you know," Obito said, gesturing them over. "It's not like I do this every day."

"Except for when you want to make a flashy entrance," Sasuke said flatly, and Obito grinned at him.

"Well sure," he admitted, "but who _doesn't_ love a flashy entrance?"

"I don't understand." Sakura said. She felt pushed out once more: the bond between Obito, Naruto, and Sasuke was so obviously much more familiar and deeper than what she had with any of them, despite their efforts. She tried to shove away the lingering thoughts in the back of her mind, whispering that she was the odd one out and always would be, and failed miserably. "What are we doing?"

"The Kamui!" Naruto said with excitement, and Sakura remembered the bell test. Sasuke had mentioned that name then, referring to the jutsu that Obito had used to make Naruto vanish. It must have been one of Obito's techniques: the one that manifested with his Sharingan, and its peculiar pattern.

"Here." Obito stuck out his hand, and after a moment of hesitation Sakura took it. Naruto laid his hand on Obito's forearm, just above her own. Sasuke just pressed his palm to the older Uchiha's side. "Hold on, okay? This is gonna be pretty weird."

Obito closed his left eye, and the Sharingan in his right _changed._

The world folded in on itself, and Sakura yelped. For just a second, she was somewhere incredibly cold. There was no breeze, no sound of crickets, nothing: just the sound of her own breathing, and her heartbeat. Panic wormed into her mind. She heard her heartbeat speed up. _Where was she_?

Then the sensation passed, and she found herself in a damp cave.

"Guh." The Haruno stumbled backwards, sinking to one knee. The solid cold stone under her leg helped her ground herself. She was in a cave: rocks all around. This made sense.

"Ugh," Naruto agreed, falling on his butt. "Every time."

Sasuke remained standing, as did Obito. The younger Uchiha removed his hand from the older. "Give it a second," he said. "You'll be fine." He was talking to her, Sakura realized. Trying to make it look like he cared.

He was right though. Sakura's head swiftly stopped swimming, and before she knew it, she was back on her feet. Whatever jutsu Obito had used, its effects were clearly temporary. She looked around and got a better look at wherever they ended up.

Her initial impressions had been accurate. There wasn't much more to the cave than damp, dark rocks: there was a small grotto of water behind them, most likely the entrance to the lake. Sakura wondered how there could be air down here, as thick and stifling as it was. She'd never known that pockets like this could exist underwater; one more thing she'd learned today.

She could see. That was also unusual. There shouldn't have been any light down here, rendering sight even with chakra enhanced sight all but useless, but instead her eyes were piercing through the gloom with only a little difficulty. They picked up the slick trail of thick liquid snaking along the ground, into the lake, and Sakura blinked. The question of where the minuscule amount of light could be coming from was shoved to the back of her mind. The liquid slipping over the rocks was dark, and it moved far too sluggishly to be water.

"Blood," she blurted out, and her sensei jerked his head towards her. She pointed, knowing the Sharingan probably saw everything down here as though it were day. "Do you see that?"

"Hmm," Sasuke stepped forward, kneeling down next to the tiny stream of blood. Naruto stumbled after him in the dark, while Obito stood back, his arms crossed. Sakura strained to make out his expression; she couldn't read her sensei's face, but his body language was definitely concerned.

"It's got even more of that chakra in it than the lake," Sasuke said, turning back to their teacher. "I think this might be the source."

"You're probably right," Obito grunted. "Wherever it's coming from, it's been feeding into the water."

"We following it then?" Naruto asked, and Obito grimaced.

"Yes," Sakura's sensei said, stepping forward. "But stay behind me, and stick close. I've half a mind to send you all back right now."

' _Please do,'_ said the part of Sakura she'd prefer to listen to. She didn't like this. Mysterious blood trails in the dark, _underground_ ; that was asking for trouble, no matter the circumstances.

' _Don't you dare,'_ said the other. _'I've still got to prove myself.'_

She wished that voice would shut up.

They slowly proceeded deeper into the cave, and gradually, the amount of light rose. The rocks under their feet were consistently slick, whether with water or liquid Sakura didn't want to think about, but it didn't keep them back. After just a minute of walking, the source of the light came into view.

There was a crack in the wall, just big enough for someone to squeeze through. Warm light slipped through, cast by something out of sight. Obito moved through it first, turning sideways and raising his arms. Naruto followed hastily after, and Sakura after him. The feeling of her shoulders pressing against the cold stone impressed upon her a certain claustrophobia. This place could crush her without even meaning to.

Then she was through the press of stone, with Sasuke close behind her. Sakura stared around in confusion. She hadn't known what to expect, but it certainly hadn't been this.

It was a corridor of smoothly-cut stone, about six feet wide and eight tall; less claustrophobic than the cave, but not by much. There were small depressions cut in the stone every couple feet at about her sensei's head height, out of which spilled bright light; little fires. Sakura could smell the oil fueling them.

"Oh boy," Obito muttered.

It was clear to Sakura this was a base of some sort. Hidden underground, away from prying eyes, and it was the source of whatever had infected the lake. People clearly lived here: what kind, she could only guess.

"Alright," her sensei said, his voice low. "This changes things."

"C'mon," Sasuke said. He pushed back the older Uchiha, and Obito shot him a look of alarm. "We have to see where this goes."

"Sasuke, hold on." Obito took a step after him. "We can't be too hasty."

"He's right though!" Naruto said, following after Sasuke. "C'mon, we can handle this: let's see what's down here!"

Sakura's teammates pushed ahead, leaving her and their sensei behind. With no choice, the both of them followed after. Obito muttered something under his breath that Sakura was sure she wasn't supposed to hear.

" _Stupid kids._ "

She hoped he wasn't talking about her.

The corridor eventually broadened, the walls moving out and the ceiling rising. They came to a crossroad, another path intersecting Team Seven's own. Naruto and Sasuke continued straight ahead; Sakura glanced down both sides of the other corridor, and only saw the same featureless rock as their current path. This place was deceptively large.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Naruto asked, dropping his voice. Sasuke stopped beside him, and Obito's fast walk finally caught the older Uchiha up to the two of them. Sakura was still several paces behind.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, laying his hand on each of the boy's shoulders. They looked up at him in confusion. "I told you to stay behind me."

"So?" Sasuke said. "It's not like being a couple feet ahead of you is going to matter."

Sakura couldn't see her sensei's face, but she could imagine his nostrils flaring. "Listen to me. We're in unknown territory: you have no idea what could be around the next corner. You three are _my responsibility_ , so so long as we're down here you're _staying behind me_. Just be happy I haven't shoved you into the Kamui yet."

Her teammates didn't respond immediately. Obito must have cowed them. "All right," Naruto eventually said. "We get it. Sorry for that."

"It's fine," Obito said, moving ahead. "Just keep it in mind. And not just for today."

"Hey," Sakura said. Her sensei stopped. "Naruto. What did you hear?"

"You don't hear it too?" Naruto dropped his voice. "Listen."

Sakura did, and after a moment the sound Naruto had noticed solidified at the edge of her perception. She knew her teacher could hear it as well now that he was focusing on it, as well as Sasuke. It was a steady beat, reverberating through the walls, the faintest of echoes. Two syllables, constantly repeated. Sakura couldn't make out the words, but she understood what she was hearing after a second of attentiveness.

Chanting, or something like it. Somewhere down here, a group was chanting.

"It's coming from that direction," Sasuke said, pointing to his right, down the corridor they'd just passed.

"Alright, let's go," Obito said. "But this time…"

"Yeah yeah, we know," Naruto grumbled, falling in behind his teacher. They backtracked, moving down the corridor they'd ignored towards the sound. Sakura grew more and more nervous: moving practically single file like this, they were easy targets. Still, they would see anyone else coming down the corridor at them, obviously, and with Obito in the lead, they didn't really have anything to worry about.

The stone corridor grew broader and taller, until Sakura's claustrophobia quietly receded. But the more space opened up around them, the louder the voices grew. There was more than the single word now, babbling and joyous singing. People were stomping their feet. How many voices were there? More than a dozen, less than twenty. Her ears burned with chakra as she amplified her hearing as much as she could, until every sound was painful.

What were they saying? The echoes rebounding throughout the cave made it impossible to tell.

Obito suddenly held his hand up, and the whole group stopped. He glanced back at them and raised one finger to his lips; his Sharingan was active. Then, he dropped on all fours, crawling forward like a maimed spider. He didn't make a sound, and Sasuke and Naruto followed after him, adopting his pose and scuttling across the ground. Sakura followed them, feeling her fingers dig into the occasional patches of soft stone.

At least there wasn't any blood on the ground here. She didn't want _more_ blood, not after the bear.

The corridor was now wide enough for them to go side by side, and the chanting was louder than ever. Less than fifty feet away, surely. Sakura's heart beat in time with its echo. Suddenly, the corridor twisted, spitting them out onto a wide disk of stone. There was a lip of raised rock on the edge of it, jagged red stalagmites covering the rim. The chanting was coming from just beyond and below them. Obito crawled forward, peering through the stone. Despite herself, Sakura crept up beside him.

Finally, the source of the chanting became obvious.

There were seventeen men and women arrayed in a rough semicircle below, of every size and shape and dressed in seemingly random clothes. Some of them wore thick brown robes, obviously homemade, while others were dressed like mercenaries, wearing iron and kevlar armor and strapped with weapons of every kind. One man even had a poleaxe, propped at his side.

They were all facing a slightly raised altar as they raised their voices as one. That was the only thing Sakura could call it. It was a bulge of crimson stone, covered in candles. In the center of it, there was a pit, maybe four meters wide and two meters long.

Sakura couldn't tell how deep it was. It could have been a meter or a kilometer. The pit was full of blood. Overflowing with blood. Thick, arterial blood so red it was almost black, splashing against the stone and slowly dribbling down the sides of the altar. The whole congregation was standing in almost an inch of the stuff.

Behind the pit, there was a simple idol carved from wood: less than two feet tall, a skeleton that had blades for fingers and toes and no face. Where its face should have been, there was an inverted triangle held inside a circle, carved so deeply into the wood it was almost a hole in the thing's head. The blades were covered in blood too. And behind the idol, there was one more man.

She looked to her left, at Naruto, and the Hokage's son stared back at her, eyes wide. He was scared, she realized. Just as scared as her. They should have turned around.

' _What the fuck,'_ he mouthed, and Sakura felt the insane urge to laugh.

The chant was obvious now, even with the cacophonous singing and stamping that underlaid it. Two syllables, like she'd thought.

_JA-SHIN_

_JA-SHIN_

_JA-SHIN_

Sakura didn't know the word, or the name, or whatever it was, but it made her skin crawl. Her whole body was covered in goosebumps. She looked right, at Obito, and he jerked his head back, not taking his eyes off the congregation thirty feet below them.

' _Back.'_ She could practically hear him in her head. _'Back up, right now.'_

She, Naruto, and Sasuke all obeyed at once, creeping back from the ledge, silently crawling backwards.

At least, until Sakura's foot hit something.

_JA-SHIN_

She spun, the rustle of her shirt against the stone deafening in her ears, and found a woman standing over her. Sakura's foot had bumped into hers; the woman had silently crept up behind them. She was tall and blonde, and wore the clothes of a traveling merchant, the same kind of people who came and went from Paper Hill.

But her teeth were bared in a huge smile that had no humanity in it, her hair was streaked with clotted blood, and in her hands she held a sickle. A very clean sickle.

Sakura forgot to breathe, and the woman's smile widened.

_JA-SHIN_

"Heeeeeeeey-" she rasped, as though she were on the edge of panting, and then her throat opened up like a ziplock bag.

Obito was already there. Obito had already shoved his short sword through the woman's neck, twisted, and torn it out, removing everything below her chin in a single violent motion. It had happened so fast Sakura had only seen the afterimage. The woman didn't even have time to gag; instead, she just sank like a stone into water, falling into Obito's arms. He gently deposited her to the ground, as though her body were light and silent as a feather.

_JA-SHIN_

Their teacher pointed back down the corridor, mouthed the words. "Go."

Naruto took a step forward, and the woman's eyes opened. Obito was cradling the body, looking at Naruto. But it wasn't a body, Sakura realized.

Somehow, the woman was still alive.

She flailed, hurling her sickle at Naruto, and the boy gagged and ducked backwards, the tool barely clearing his forehead. Obito's eyes went wide and he struck the woman once again, stabbing his sword up through her empty neck and out the top of her head. Still, impossibly, the body flailed, scratching at him and trying to break free. The woman's eyes were wide and insane and-

_Filled with joy._

_JA-SHIN_

Obito gave up on the sword and broke the woman's neck with a single violent jerk, and her flailing ceased.

The sickle hit one of the stalagmites ringing the lookout point, and produced a sharp, clear ring.

The chanting stopped, and Sakura's heart did alongside it.

They all froze, not even daring to breath. There was muttering from below. Feet and tools scuffing along the ground.

"What was that?" a man asked. It was a distant voice; the man behind the altar. "Hey, what the fuck was that?"

The muttering grew louder. "Hey!" the man yelled again. "Do we have any _unwelcome assholes_ up there?!"

"Run," Obito muttered. He glanced at them, and Sakura realized she wasn't alone; both Naruto and Sasuke were too scared to move. They were all covered in a cold sweat. This wasn't supposed to be what their first mission outside the village would be like. They were supposed to have it together by now. _She should have had it-_

" _Run-!_ "

There was a light tap, and they all turned as one. One of the men from below had jumped to the wall across from them, above the altar. The same one who'd been standing behind it, speaking before. He was a short, thin man with grey hair and amber eyes, and he was holding a long scythe with a red blade. Even stranger, the only thing he was wearing was a pure white kimono, so bright it hurt to look at.

He was standing on the side of the wall. Standing horizontally, staring at them. He was a ninja, Sakura belatedly realized. Or at least, he'd been trained in using chakra. That made everything even worse.

"Wow!" The man laughed. Sakura started backing up. "There's some dumb fucks up here!" He looked down at the hidden crowd. "Hey, morons! There's some dumb fucking ninjas up there!" He laughed again, and Obito got in between them and the man.

The man in white smiled. "That's perfect, huh? Grab them!"


	8. Blood

Sacrifice

"Sasuke," Obito said. "Don't move."

Sakura glanced at her teammate, and was surprised to find he was reaching for a knife. Wasn't he scared? His Sharingan was active, fixed upon the man with the scythe.

"Listen," their sensei said. "At this range, he'll be on me before I can get you guys into the Kamui. Then we'll be in serious trouble." He took a step forward, putting another foot between him and his students, and Sakura trembled as she watched the cult's leader grin and ready his weapon. Who fought with a _scythe_? "You understand? You can't fight him. I'll keep him busy, but you have to look out for yourselves."

"We can take him!" Naruto announced. Below, Sakura could hear the cultists moving. It sounded like some were climbing the walls, with or without chakra. Others were streaming out of the room into the cave system.

"No, you _cannot_ ," Obito hissed. "Get out of here first. Find a way out of the caves, or lay low if you can't. Be careful: they're small fry, but there's something weird about _all_ these guys' chakra." He wasn't looking at them: his eyes were fixed on his opponent. Sakura had never seen her sensei so incredibly focused. "Keep each other _safe_."

"Sensei-," she started to say.

"GO!" Obito barked, and Sakura and her teammates turned and ran. There was a clash of steel behind them, and Sakura stole a glance over her shoulder as they fled. The man in white had leapt towards them, and Obito had intercepted him with his short sword. Her sensei had been right: the enemy had covered the entire distance between them before Sakura had made it a single step. The two men grappled, sword against scythe for the blink of an eye, and then they both fell. Out of sight, and into the cavern full of cultists.

To Sakura's shock, that didn't scare her. Their sensei could definitely take care of himself. Right now, she was a lot more scared for herself.

"Right!" she shouted, and then sprinted down the passage to her left. Naruto and Sasuke both understood right away, and followed her. Their footfalls were silent, but the cultists were not. There was screaming, blades clashing, and a stampede of feet. Obito was in among them, out of sight, and some were clearly leaving to hunt down her and her teammates instead of staying to fight.

The tunnels were a complete labyrinth: Sakura had no idea where she was going. She slowed down, trying to listen, and her teammates came alongside her.

"That was smart, Sakura!" Naruto loudly whispered. "They'll go the wrong way!"

Sasuke shook his head. "We don't know this place: I bet those freaks do. We've only got a minute before they-"

A man with a brown scarf wrapped around his shoulder and swords in both hands turned the corner ahead of them. Both Team Seven and the sudden intruder stopped dead, staring at each other.

The man's face broke into a smile. "See!" he shouted back at an unseen companion. "My right, not yours! Dummy!"

Then he charged, raising both swords over his heads and screaming at the top of his lungs.

Sakura froze, but her teammates didn't. Sasuke moved before either of them, flinging a kunai straight at the cultist. The knife struck the man in the stomach and buried itself up the hilt, and the screaming man staggered, almost losing his footing.

"Get him!" Naruto shouted, charging forward and leaping into the air. The spell broke: Sakura realized just how fast her heart was beating and let out a yell of her own, breaking her paralysis. The man swung both his swords at once, one at Naruto's head and the other at his legs. Sakura threw a kunai and broke into a run, desperate to help; her knife took the man in the hand, and he dropped the sword meant for Naruto's head with a yelp of pain. Naruto took care of the other sword himself, violently kicking out and both knocking it from the man's hand and clocking him in the jaw.

The man staggered backwards and Sasuke jumped past Naruto, kicking off the man's shoulders and sending him tumbling to the ground. His Sharingan was a red blur in the dimness of the cave. Sakura realized the first cultist wasn't his target when the next turned the corner. It was another man, this one unarmed but wearing steel armor.

Sasuke fell in an arc behind the man, and his hand clapped on the cultist's shoulder and dragged him down with him. The new arrival stumbled, off balance, and so fast Sakura could barely believe it Sasuke shoved another kunai through the man's head. The armored man had a thick black mustache, and it twitched he tried to understand what had just happened.

She blinked, and the man fell, his whole body spasming. Sasuke looked to his right, down the corridor, and saw something that obviously shocked him.

"Sakura!" Naruto shouted, turning towards her. "Behind you!" She started to turn, and as she did the man Sasuke had jumped off of kicked at Naruto's ankle, trying to bring him down.

"You little shit!" the man shrieked, one hand impaled and his stomach covered in his own blood. Naruto leapt onto him with an angry yell, and Sakura finished turning away; she trusted Naruto to be able to handle a single wounded man.

There was yet another enemy behind them, coming down the corridor at her. This one was an overweight woman, waving a chokuto in front of her. She eyed Sakura hungrily, and the genin felt a sudden chill run from the top of her head to her toes.

"You made a big mistake coming here," the woman hissed, and swung her sword.

It was a straight, predictable vertical attack with an obvious wind-up, and Sakura's body slipped past it without any hesitation. She was surprised at her own decisiveness: instead of backing up, she'd brought herself closer to the woman. The cultist's eyes went wide and she yelled, swinging horizontally with one hand.

How were you supposed to fight swords again? Sakura couldn't have told someone anything about the academy lessons in that precise second, but she still knew exactly what to do. She'd been trained to fight with her reflexes; if you over-thought a fight, you'd be the one on the ground with a bloody nose afterwards. Ino, Hinata, and her other classmates had taught her that plenty of times.

But in this case, she wouldn't have a bloody nose, Sakura realized. If she messed up, she'd be dead.

So instead of getting cut in half, she twisted and punched out, knocking the woman's hand back and carrying the blade away from her. Her opponent grunted in surprise, taking a step back to swing again. She wasn't an amateur; she was using the momentum Sakura had given her to attack again.

But her footwork was sloppy.

Right! Leverage! She was inside the woman's guard: the sword wasn't dangerous so long as she interrupted the attacks! Sakura's eyes went wide and she dropped, sweeping the woman's legs out from under her.

Her opponent cursed and fell, and Sakura didn't give her a chance to get back up. She jumped back to her feet and kicked the woman in the face. The cultist's head was tossed back and struck the stone with a sickening crack, and then rolled, insensate, as a pool of blood began steadily spreading beneath her dirty brown hair.

Sakura paused, feeling like she was watching everything over her own shoulder. Was that really it? That had been her first fight?

She'd won?

"Diah!" Yet _another_ enemy turned the corner ahead of her, watching with wide eyes. " _You_!" He pulled a shuriken from his pocket, and Sakura stumbled back in fear. Someone else with ninja training? She heard Naruto shout something behind her, and reached for the ground on instinct: the man flung his shuriken right at her head.

Her hands wrapped around the sword that had tumbled from the unconscious woman's fingers, and she swung it in blind fear, knocking the shuriken right out of the air. Both Sakura and the man stared at one another. Neither of them were able to believe what had just happened.

"Sakura!" Naruto grabbed her by the shoulder, dragging her back. Her knuckles were white around the sword: she couldn't release it. "We gotta go!"

If Naruto was saying that, the path must have been clear. Sakura didn't have any room or time not to trust him. She turned and ran, putting her back to the enemy and focusing on sprinting. Naruto was in front of her; Sasuke was nowhere in sight.

They jumped over two bodies; one of them was unconscious, but the other was writhing despite fatal wounds. They grabbed at Sakura's heels as she sped past. Parts of the floor were slick with blood.

They rounded the corner, skidding into the turn, and Sakura felt something nick her left arm. There wasn't any time to look. Sasuke was there, stomping down on someone's head. It was the man who'd had a kunai buried in his brain. He was fighting back, trying to snatch the Uchiha's legs and pull him down to the ground.

' _Just like the bear.'_

Naruto kicked the man in the crotch as hard as he could as they passed, and the man screamed as he skidded several inches along the ground. Sasuke turned and ran with them, and all three genin rushed pell-mell through the tunnel. There were steps behind them; at least one person was chasing them.

Sakura didn't look back. She just focused on running. Straight, left, right, left: the tunnels seemed to go on forever. Behind them, the sound of running grew fainter. They were losing their pursuer. She didn't know how long she ran. It seemed like only a couple seconds, but it was probably much longer.

" _Here_ ," Sasuke grunted, diving to the left. There was a crack in the wall, Sakura realized. Maybe even a door? She threw herself into it, with Naruto right behind her.

As Sakura hit the floor and scrambled to the wall, Sasuke glanced back at her, his Sharingan whirling. He grabbed her by the arm.

"Sa-?!" she started, before following his gaze. There was a divot in her arm, and blood was running freely from it. She blinked. When had that happened? She hadn't even noticed. Had that shuriken hit her after all?

Lightning quick, Sasuke ran his hand up her arm and covered his hand in her blood as Sakura watched in shock. Then, he poked his torso out the hole and flung his hand towards the end of the path they'd been fleeing down. Sakura heard blood splatter.

He ducked back in and pressed himself to the wall, putting a finger over his lips.

Sakura and Naruto understood right away and flattened themselves against the wall, trying to steady their breathing. The sound of footsteps grew closer.

Three sets ran past their door, then stopped. Sakura held her breath.

Were they going to turn around?

There was some muttering, and then a moment later the sound of movement resumed. They were going farther down the corridor.

They waited in silence for another ninety seconds, getting control of their breathing. Sakura slumped, sliding down the wall, and winced as her arm protested. The cut was deep, nearly an inch of skin taken from her tricep. Now that the adrenaline was subsiding, it was starting to hurt.

"Nice one, Sasuke," Naruto eventually said, still panting. His face was flushed, and one of his fingernails was bleeding. "They were following the blood?"

Sasuke nodded, and Sakura lowered her head.

"Sorry," she said. "I'm really sorry. That could have been bad."

"Hey, not your fault," Naruto said with a grin. "I'm the one who should apologize. Sorry I left you with two of them." His smile grew a little wider. "Did you really deflect that shuriken? That was cool as hell!"

Sakura blushed. And looked down. She was still holding the sword? She tried to loosen her grip and found it harder than it should have been. "It was an accident," she admitted. "I just panicked and swung."

"Quiet," Sasuke said, and the both of them shut up. "Do you hear that?"

They listened, and what Sasuke was talking about quickly became apparent. The cavern they'd ducked into was small, maybe fifteen feet from wall to wall and about as deep, and there was a depression at one end of it, a small pit that they couldn't see into. There was a sound coming from the pit; a kind of gurgling, like water slowly swirling down a drain.

Naruto crept forward, poking his head over the ledge, and froze. He went pale.

"What?" Sasuke whispered. Naruto turned around. He opened his mouth to say something, and then just shook his head and gestured them over.

Sakura and Sasuke both followed him up and peeked into the pit.

Sakura almost threw up for the second time that day.

There was a woman in the pit, staring up at them with hateful crimson eyes. The gurgling was coming from her. Her cheek was resting on her shoulder, putting her head almost totally horizontal.

No, not resting. Pinned.

A steel spike had been rammed through her, vertically transfixing her whole twisted body. It went through both her cheeks, into her shoulder, down through her entire torso, and then emerged from one thigh, staking her to the ground. Her hands were bound behind her back, leaving her totally unable to rise. The woman shifted and gurgled again: her throat was intact, but her entire chest had to be a mess, Sakura thought.

Why were all these people immortal? It was insane. The bear, all these cultists, and this woman for sure. She looked like a prisoner: maybe she thought they were her captors? Was that why she was looking at them with such hate?

"Are you… okay?" Naruto asked, and the woman's eyes went wide. She gurgled again. Was that a yes? Sakura had no idea. But Naruto took it for one, and jumped down in the pit. It was only two or three feet, and he landed without a sound.

"It's okay," he said, approaching with his hands out. "I'll get you out."

"She might be one of them, Naruto," Sasuke warned. Sakura wasn't sure, and Naruto said exactly why.

"No way they would stick up one of their own people like this," Naruto declared. "If she's alive, we gotta help her."

He reached out, feeling the stake as the woman watched him with wide eyes, and gave it an exploratory tug. Nothing; it was firmly in the ground. That made sense: the woman had wiggled free by now otherwise. Naruto frowned, pulling a spool of ninja wire from one of his pockets, and gingerly wrapped it around the stake, feeding it under the woman's head and grabbing the other end.

"I'm really sorry if I get your cheek," he said with a wince. Then he started to work the wire back and forth, slowly at first and then picking up speed. The sound was quiet but grating, and Sakura nervously looked over his shoulder, keeping an eye on the entrance. She couldn't hear anyone coming, but a couple of the people chasing them had chakra training.

The wire and Naruto's strength made quick work of the stake, and it only took her teammate thirty seconds to saw through the steel. When the wire emerged from the other side, he bundled it up and placed it back in his pocket, and then gingerly took hold of the sharp top protruding from the woman's cheek. As carefully as possible, he slid it out, wincing at the blood covering it.

The moment the stake was clear of the woman's head and her mouth was free, she tried to bite Naruto's nose off with her broken teeth.

Naruto yelped and leapt back, barely avoiding the bite, and the woman laughed. "You little idiot!" she cackled. "I almost got you!"

Naruto was hyperventilating at the near miss, the bloody stake still in his hands, but Sasuke just crossed his arms and sneered. "You're the only idiot here," he said. "If you'd waited for him to actually free you, you might have had a chance."

The woman blinked. "Shut up!" she decided after a moment. "Jashin will free me, and then He will punish _you_!"

"Who's Jashin?" Sasuke asked. "The guy in white? He's probably already dead."

The woman laughed again. "You really have no idea where you are, do you?" she gasped, blood running from her mouth and the holes in her cheeks. Sakura stared in morbid fascination. "Jashin is _God_ , you little bloodbag. You've stumbled into God's home, and pissed off his followers! You won't even be leaving this place in _pieces_." She grinned, her broken teeth covered in her own blood. Sakura felt ill. "Especially when Lord Hidan finishes his ritual."

"Hidan?" Naruto asked. "Is _he_ the guy in white?"

"He's God's emissary," the woman groaned. It was like she was enjoying her pain, Sakura thought, looking back at the entrance again. Still no one, but if this conversation went on it would definitely attract someone. "If you haven't shit yourself already, you should be ready to. He's already made all of us like him, and once the sacrifices are made, it'll be permanent!" She squirmed, trying to dislodge herself from the stake, but it remained stuck fast in the stone.

"Sacrifices?" Sasuke asked. Sakura was both amazed and grateful that he could stay focused in a situation like this. Even now, he was gathering information. "You guys are the ones who've been kidnapping the merchants."

"Aren't you fucking clever," the woman sneered.

"But then why are you here, if you're one of them?" Naruto asked, and the woman's eyes narrowed.

"Because those other assholes are heretics. They're not real believers!" she spat blood on Naruto's chest, and he backpedaled in a panic. "Why do you think I haven't screamed yet? They stuck me up like this for killing one of those moneygrubbers! For spilling blood!" Her face twisted into something even more inhuman and Sakura took a step back as well. "What servant of Jashin could condemn another for spilling blood?! _Answer me_!"

She screamed the final words, and Sakura grabbed Sakura's shoulder. "We gotta go," he said. "He told us to get out of her, but I'm not hearing anything. Obito has probably cleaned up by now." She nodded, and reached down towards Naruto. He turned and took her hand, pulling himself out of the pit, and the three of them turned their back on the screeching woman.

" _You're all going to drown!_ " she shrieked. _"You and me and all those bastards, you're all going to drown in a river of blood! Jashin promised me!"_

Sakura shivered, and they left the chamber, cautiously making their way back the way they'd come. Sasuke led the way, and Sakura realized he remembered the path perfectly, despite the chaos of the chase. Was that thanks to his Sharingan, she wondered, or was his memory just that good? There was no way she could have found her way back through the maze of tunnels with such confidence.

After only a couple minutes of moving in total silence, they'd made their way back to where it all started. The corridors were empty; there weren't any cultists to be found. Where had they all gone? Was it really possible that their sensei had taken them all down? They couldn't even die.

The sound of clashing steel grew louder and louder as they made their way back, and before Sakura knew it they were in the main chamber. There was still a battle going on, but it sounded like there weren't nearly as many participants as before.

She peaked over the ledge, and found Obito Uchiha awash in a sea of bodies. Her sensei had a fierce expression that she'd never imagined on his face, and he danced among two dozen dismembered and writhing enemies, his focus entirely on his opponent. The sword in his hand left behind a shining afterimage of brilliant chakra.

Hidan, the man in white, was no longer white. One of his arms had been partially severed, and his kimono was in shreds and so stained with blood that it no longer looked like it had ever been anything but crimson. But he was still fighting and laughing, swinging his scythe with one hand as if it weighed nothing. As Sakura watched, he swung at Obito and missed with a furious howl, and the missed strike took a grounded cultist's head off as if there were no skins and bones for the blade to pass through.

The ground was covered in bodies, all still moving and trying to grab Obito. As he danced with Hidan he leapt to and fro, picking up chunks of human beings and tossing them aside with kicks and chakra-enhanced movement. It was like a scene right out of hell.

"Holy shit," Naruto murmured, and Hidan's head snapped up towards them, his eyes manic. Sakura flinched back as the cult leader disengaged from Obito, putting some distance between them and levering his scythe up at the watching genin.

"See?" he asked in a pleasant voice, stomping down on the moaning head of one of his followers. "This is why I don't mind telling you that you're all going to die." He stomped again, and laughed at the chorus of questions asked by the massacred cultists, disembodied heads and people missing all of their limbs or worse shouting questions. "You're all so _fucking useless_!" he laughed. "Can't even capture some kids fresh from the womb! Soon as this rite is complete, I'm sending _all_ of you to hell, no question!"

"I told you to leave!" Obito shouted up at them, making himself heard over dozens of violent protests. He looked tired, Sakura thought with a start. His face was damp with sweat and his clothes were plastered to his body. Was he running out of chakra? No matter how skilled he was, up against so many opponents at once he must have _had_ to use that intangibility jutsu. Just how much chakra did it take to slip through attacks like that? "Get out of here!"

"Yeah, get out of here!" Hidan cackled. "It'll make you more fun to chase down when we're done!" Obito charged him and their dance began again, the deafening sound of steel on steel filling the air. The fight was too fast for Sakura to follow their movements; it was just a blur of violence. Nonetheless, she was sure that Obito was deflecting or avoiding Hidan's attacks, not just phasing through them.

"He's in trouble," Sasuke muttered, obviously unable to believe it, and Sakura shot him a fearful glance. "That freak is tiring him out."

Hidan didn't look tired, Sakura thought. Not like Obito did. Maybe being immortal also made it impossible for that to happen. If that was the case…

"We can't run," Naruto said, gritting his teeth. "He's right. He'll just chase us down."

"What do we do?!" Sakura asked, feeling panic rising in her chest. Her grip tightened on her stolen sword. "We can't fight him. We can't even help sensei. What do we do?!"

Sasuke pulled two more knives from his hip pouch. "I've got no idea," he admitted. "Let's go."

He jumped down into the cavern, and Naruto and Sakura had no choice but to follow him.

"God, Sasuke, you _little idiot_!" Obito shouted as soon as they landed, and Sasuke flinched.

Hidan laughed. " _Sasuke, you little idiot!_ " he shrieked in a falsetto. "You think he can defend himself and you at the same time?!" In response, Sasuke threw both his knives; Hidan dodged both of them with the most minimal movements possible, refusing to take his eyes off of Obito.

Sakura's teammate straightened up. Sakura felt a chill as Hidan watched them out of the corner of his eye as he and their sensei fought across the room, Obito desperately driving him back with a flurry of blows that were so fast and vicious that the trail of white chakra they left behind seemed like a solid wall.

If Sasuke felt the same chill, he didn't show it. He started running through handsigns with impressive speed and took in a deep breath.

"Heads up," Naruto said, pulling a knife and another spool of ninja wire as well. Sakura held up her sword.

_Katon: Gokakyu No Jutsu._

Sasuke spat a fireball twice his own size, and the sudden heat made Sakura flinch. The jutsu roared forward, torching any cultist on the ground that wasn't able to get out of the way. Both Hidan and Obito saw it coming and leapt out of the way. The jutsu missed entirely.

But as Hidan started to jump, Naruto threw his knife, the wire now tied around its handle. The kunai missed as well, soaring over Hidan's head, but Naruto didn't seem to care: he grabbed Sakura's hand and fastened both it and his own hands on the endpoint of the wire, as if getting ready for something. His hand was warm.

As Sakura watched, gripping tightly by instinct and sword at the ready, Obito noticed the glint of the wire extending from the knife. With the fireball still in between himself and Hidan, obscuring his opponent's sight, he jumped over the jutsu…

And axe-kicked the knife right out of the air, straight into the ground.

The wire suddenly went amazingly taught, and Naruto and Sakura both tightened their grip on its handle, desperate not to let it get away from them. The shining steel string went straight down like a guillotine, and chopped the rest of Hidan's shredded arm off.

Sakura watched in shock as the limb fell away. How had Naruto and Sasuke come up with a plan like that, without sharing a word? How had Obito understood it so quickly? Was that even possible?

"Useless!" Hidan screamed, and to Sakura's horror he kicked a blade from the ground right at them. It spun through the air ready to decapitate Naruto.

She screamed back in both terror and anger and dragged her teammate down, swinging upwards with her sword at the same moment. It connected, and her whole arm went numb from the force of the deflection. The blade slightly changed direction upward and Naruto fell, off balance, thanks to her yanking on his hand.

All that combined was just enough to ensure that instead of losing his head, the Hokage's son only suffered a very unexpected haircut.

" _NO!"_ Obito roared, and drove his blade past the hilt into Hidan's chest, dragging it down and opening the man's entire torso up in an enormous welter of blood. It was an incredible blow, but the man didn't even seem to notice: he kicked Obito in the gut and swung at him wildly with his scythe as their sensei stumbled back, obviously winded. The blade went right through Obito's forearm, and their sensei hissed in pain, grabbing it with his other hand and holding fast before Hidan could complete the cut. As Obito grew intangible and slipped through the blade, his arm bleeding heavily, Sakura felt like she was going to cry.

Sasuke blinked, staring at something Sakura couldn't see.

"Oh god," he said, and Naruto looked up at him, trembling from the near miss.

"Thanks." He squeezed Sakura's hand, and her heart jumped. "What, Sasuke?"

"He's got no heart," Sasuke said faintly. "He's got everything else in there, but no heart." He blinked again, looking around the room. "And…" His eyes narrowed. "There's a chain. From each of their hearts, to the pit."

"A chain?" Sakura asked. She couldn't see anything like that. Sasuke shook his head.

"It's chakra!" he said, breaking into a run. Sakura and Naruto took off after him, keeping their eyes on Hidan and their sensei. The man whose chest had been completely opened up, like a corpse in a morgue, tracked their trajectory and started yelling, even though his lungs had been destroyed.

"Hey!" he shouted, kicking out at Obito and almost losing a foot in the process. "Bad! Ugly little shits! I'm already going to kill you: don't make me do _worse_!"

' _He's freaking out.'_

Incredibly, Sakura heard herself giggle.

The man who had reacted to his arm being removed and his chest getting turned into an anatomy lesson by laughing and attacking more ferociously was panicking just from them getting closer to the pit. He was even driving Obito back now, their sensei grunting with obvious effort as he deflected a relentless series of blows from the scythe.

Sasuke reached the pit first and, without a shred of hesitation, dove headfirst into the blood. Naruto skidded to a stop behind him, leaving a trail in the blood that had surrounded it, and stared into the solid red liquid. It was totally opaque, and didn't stir besides the occasional ripple as more blood pulsed out of it. Within a second of Sasuke submerging himself, it was like he'd never existed.

Sakura and Naruto exchanged a glance and turned to face the fight, watching in horror as Hidan pushed their sensei back. Obito was bleeding from a dozen small wounds; even though he had inflicted over thirty fatal injuries on Hidan, the man refused to slow down or give ground. He screamed even with his vocal cords cut, and he swung even as the tendons in his arm were torn to pieces.

It was a nightmare. Sakura felt a tear slip out. She and her teammate started throwing kunai on the same unconscious impulse, desperate to help their teacher. They plucked knives from their packs and hurled them at Hidan at every chance they had. It took the both of them about twenty seconds to run out, and only one of the knives actually landed, sticking in the insane man's knee. Sakura didn't know which one of them had thrown it.

"I think I'll start by turning you inside out!" Hidan screamed. "This was supposed to be a good day before you assholes showed up, you know! Now I'm gonna have to pray for forgiveness for eating your heathen souls without the right seasoning!"

Sakura was numb to it now. This couldn't get much worse.

At that moment, Sasuke surfaced behind them, gasping for air. They both turned back in shock; he was totally coated in blood, and it looked like the blood had become a body for a moment before Sakura and Naruto realized what was happening. They reached down and yanked him out of the pit.

"It's down there!" Sasuke shouted, opening his eyes. One of them was completely red. Had he opened it under the blood? Sakura's stomach flipped yet again. "His heart!" he shouted again, grabbing her arm and squeezing tightly. "It's down there, but it's too deep! I can't reach it! Obito! You've gotta get the heart!"

"HA!" Hidan shrieked. "Yeah, you do that, Uchiha! Leave your kids with me! I'm a _great_ babysitter!"

Obito couldn't reach it.

Sakura looked down at the bloody handprint Sasuke had left on her arm.

Sasuke couldn't reach it.

It was down too deep. How deep could the narrow pit be, if that was the case?

' _Nearly four minutes. Very impressive, Sakura.'_

Sakura remembered Obito's words and looked back at her sensei, struggling to keep them all alive.

Suddenly, quite suddenly, for a reason she couldn't quite say…

Her terror died down. It grew quiet, buried under the rapid beating of her heart. She looked down at her hand, and dropped her stolen sword.

"I'll get it," she said, and Naruto stared at her.

She took a deep breath, as deep as she could, and jumped.

She would have screamed right away, if not for how horrible the situation was. The blood welcomed her like an old friend, embracing her on all sides completely. As she slipped beneath the surface, the first thing she noticed was how hot it was. Despite coming from a hole in the ground, the blood that now completely surrounded her felt as if it had just left someone's body. It was hot and sticky, and moving through it incredibly difficult.

Sakura felt panic and claustrophobia start to overwhelm her, and almost turned around right there. Instead, she reoriented herself and swam straight down.

' _It's hot.'_

She didn't want to do this. She just wanted to give up, and it had been less than five seconds. As she swam deeper, the darkness behind her eyelids grew blacker and blacker; the blood blocked so much light that it made the transition to abyssal in less than ten meters.

' _It's dark.'_

Her arm ached, and she remembered the wound on her tricep. It was full of this blood now. What was going to happen? Would she get infected or something? This was the stuff that had contaminated the lake, and Obito had warned her against getting any of that on her. Wouldn't this be even worse? Her whole body was aching. Swimming through the blood was completely exhausting. It felt like it was trying to push her back to the surface.

" _I'm tired.'_

How far had she gone already? Fifty meters? How long had it been? Thirty seconds? It was so hard to tell in the midst of everything. She could hold her breath for another two, maybe three minutes, she was sure, but this wasn't like sitting underwater. This was hard, and her heart was beating a panicked rhythm. It was the only thing she could hear.

' _You're all going to drown."_

Stop it. Don't think. Just swim.

' _You're all going to drown in a river of blood.'_

Another thirty seconds passed, and Sakura realized she'd overestimated herself. The panic, the growing pressure of the blood, everything was squeezing her lungs dry so much faster than normal. She had to be over a hundred meters down now, and she could feel the pressure of all the blood above her crushing her down farther.

Was everyone already dead up above? Had Hidan already killed them? Was it even worth doing this anymore?

As Sakura considered turning around, she heard a sudden heartbeat.

It wasn't her own. She stopped her descent, going totally still.

The pulse came again. The blood around her stirred; the vibration barely twitched her ears. Blood wasn't a great conductor for sound.

That meant she was close.

She listened one more time, trying to pinpoint the source, and less than a half-second later it came again.

Right below her, she realized. Two, maybe three meters. She dove, forgetting how her lungs were burning, and blindly reached out. Her hands fastened around something slimy.

It was about the size of her head, huge for a heart, and as Sakura brought her other hand down it bucked against her, beating violently. More blood was squeezed out of it as it did, rushing past her hand and joining the rest of the pit.

This was the source of the blood, Sakura realized. This thing had been at the bottom of the pit, steadily filling it up the whole time. She fumbled for her pack, reaching for a knife.

But the moment her hand hit her empty pack, pressing it into her back, she realized her mistake. She'd used up all her knives with Naruto while trying to slow down Hidan.

Sakura felt a brutal red anger far redder than the blood around her take hold of her and she took the heart in both hands, squeezing it as hard as she could. Her finger made deep divots in it, but it kept stubbornly beating, refusing to die. She wasn't strong enough to crush it into paste: this was the heart of a ninja, after all.

Without hesitation, she turned around, tucking the heart to her own chest and swimming for the surface. It felt like the organ was resisting, trying to sink back to the bottom of the pit. Her head was aching: she was running out of oxygen. It only made her kick more viciously, driving herself towards the surface far faster than she'd descended.

' _I'm not going to die on my first C-Rank,'_ Sakura thought to herself, even though she knew this was anything but a C-Rank mission.

' _I've got to tell my parents how it went.'_

Twenty seconds, thirty. Sakura's whole body was aching, a migraine coming on. She was past her limit. She'd have to take a breath any moment now; her body's instinct to breathe was stronger than her will to keep her mouth shut.

But the darkness behind her eyelids was getting lighter. She was close.

' _Don't breathe,'_ she begged herself, swimming harder. The heart against her chest bucked even more violently. _'Don't breathe."_

' _Just go!_

Sakura breached going almost twenty miles per hour, and even though the blood was loathe to give her up, she forced herself clear out of the pit and beached herself on the bloody stone surrounding it. She heard both her teammates jump back in shock.

They were still alive!

She took a ragged breath, unable to comprehend what was happening and unable to open her eyes. They were stuck close by the sticky blood.

She couldn't see anything, so she decided there was no choice but to trust blindly. She raised the heart over her head in both hands, and called out in desperation.

"SENSEI!" she screamed, and she heard a scuffle, more steel on steel.

" _NO!"_ Hidan howled, and then her arms jerked back as something took the heart right out of her hands.

The omnipresent moaning of the dismembered cultists ceased.

The cavern grew quiet, and Sakura didn't know what had happened. Gingerly, she lowered her arms, waiting for someone to say something or for anything to happen, and tried to wipe some of the blood from her eyes.

Someone else's hand was suddenly there, wiping her eyes clear with some water, and Sakura flinched back, almost sprawling on the stone and blinking wildly. The sudden light was painful after minutes alone in the dark.

"Hey." It was Naruto, standing over her and extending his hand. Sakura blinked, looking at him, behind him. Obito was standing over Hidan, stepping on his open throat; the man was lying on the ground convulsing, his eyes rolling back into his head.

She looked back, and found the heart. It was pinned to the wall of the cave, Obito's short sword transfixing it.

He'd thrown his sword, Sakura realized. Her sensei had thrown his sword and impaled the heart in her hands.

She took Naruto's hand, still staring at the heart. It was beating slower and as she watched, stopped, its lifeblood dripping down the wall to join the rest on the floor.

"Sakura," Obito said, glancing back at her. There was blood running in light trails from both his eyes, and he was as pale as paper. He looked totally exhausted. "Good work."

Sakura smiled at him, and then he fell to one knee, seemingly about to pass out.

"Obito!" Sasuke rushed forward. "Is he-?"

"He's dead," Obito gasped. "With his heart vulnerable like that…" He made a sound that sounded like choking; Sakura realized it might have been a laugh. "He was making a big play, and it backfired on him. Lucky for us."

He tried to stagger to his feet and failed; Sasuke had to catch him before he landed on his face. "The merchants," their sensei said faintly. "They've gotta be here. They were gonna be sacrificed. We've gotta get them."

"We'll get them," Naruto declared. "Actually, _I'll_ get them. You guys rest, okay?" He glanced at Sakura, and she realized that just like Sasuke, she must have looked frightening, entirely coated in blood. "Just… take it easy for a second, okay?"

"Yeah," Sasuke confirmed. "Find them, and shout if you need help." Sakura sat back with an exhausted nod, and Naruto took off, running off into one of the corridors with his boundless energy.

Sakura tried wiping away the blood from her face and gave up after several passes. There was just too much of the stuff. She closed her eyes again, letting her head drop.

She felt like she could fall asleep right there. She was so warm, and so tired. But she couldn't. Even if the danger had passed, the mission wasn't quite completely.

Still, her consciousness drifted. By the time Naruto came back with an excited yell, she was barely able to hear him.

"They're all alive!" he said. "Pretty beat up, but alive!"

"Awesome," Obito said. He looked a little less pale, and he waved off Sasuke as he pulled himself to his feet. "Awesome. Show us the way."


	9. Mission Success

The Cut That Saved Sakura's Life

It took a long time for Sakura to wash all of the blood off.

Ten merchants had gone missing from Paper Hill, and Naruto had found nine of them; the last, a man named Yako, was dead, killed by one of the cultists, just as the pinned woman had claimed. None of the merchants had known what had happened to his body. It hadn't been taken with them.

They were all in relatively good shape, though none of them had eaten in at least two days. They'd been kept alive and unharmed, and nothing more. When Obito had asked them if their captors had told them anything, they'd all agreed that Hidan hadn't done much more than preach to them.

The man had told them they were the key to his immortality. That had made Sakura shiver. Hidan already hadn't been able to die by normal means; whatever the ritual beneath the lake had been trying to accomplish, she had her feeling that her team had accidentally averted something catastrophic.

It had taken them about a half hour to find their way to the surface; Obito had been too tired to carry them out with his Kamui. The merchants had all given Sakura and Sasuke frightened looks when they'd been led back to the main chamber by Obito; Sakura had never had someone look at her with fear before. She'd given the woman in the front a smile, thinking that maybe this was Haruka, and she'd flinched.

Sakura had been a little offended, but now, in the water, she could understand. If a girl covered in blood had smiled at her, white teeth against dried red blood, she probably would have flinched away too.

"Okay, we're taking these guys back," Obito had said when they'd finally emerged from the cave system. It had spat them out in the forest, somewhere Sakura didn't recognize. "Sasuke, you're up front: I'm in the back. Naruto and Sakura, left and right."

It was a standard diamond formation that they were taught early and often in the academy for the purpose of escorting VIP's, and falling into it helped Sakura forget she was still covered in warm, sticky blood. Her arm ached constantly. Sakura had never been hit with a shuriken before: was it really supposed to hurt that much? Every step she took, she left behind a bloody footprint, dimmer and dimmer with each step.

This wasn't really how her first C-Rank was supposed to have gone, she was thinking all the way back to Paper Hill. It was supposed to be simple. She shouldn't have had to swim through enough blood to fill up a couple hundred people. That was just wrong.

Distantly, Sakura wondered if she was in shock. Surely, she'd have a good excuse. But this didn't feel like shock, or at least what shock had been described like to her. She was just tired. Exhausted, really. All the adrenaline had completely worn off and it left her with a deep and constant exhaustion. She barely remembered the trip back.

It was late when they got back, and darker than ever. Sakura had lost track of time, but if she had to guess, it was probably close to two or three in the morning. There were two people standing guard at the bridge leading into the town, both armed with crossbows; Sasuke had probably given them a hell of a surprise, coming out of the dark and covered in blood.

It was all a blur. The town had come alive, people streaming out of their homes to welcome them back. There'd been cheering, screaming: one woman crying. It had all washed over Sakura without making a single impression. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and fall asleep, but there was no way that was possible while she was still caked in blood, her hair clumping together and the space between her fingers sticky.

"Sakura." That had been her sensei, passing before her like a ghost. He was still incredibly pale; Sakura had wondered how close he'd come to succumbing to Hidan's endless attacks. If she'd been even a second slower, would they all be here, among this noise and celebration in the dark? "You and Sasuke should wash off. Go to the river, okay? We'll find you guys a bed."

Sakura had nodded, and then she was there, or now she was here. She was finding things a little confusing.

The river was cold, but it wasn't waking her up. Sakura had gone in fully dressed, desperate to wash the blood off every bit of her and her clothes. She swam in slow laps, gradually getting pushed along by the lazy current, scrubbing at her arms and legging. The blood whorled off her in thick curls, practically invisible in the dark water. She pulled clumps of it out of her hair, running her fingers through it over and over, fruitlessly trying to get rid of all the tangles.

She really was dumb, she suddenly thought. She'd brought three explosive tags down into the temple, and she hadn't used a single one of them; they probably would have come in handy against Hidan. Maybe if she hadn't been standing around, she could have done something useful. And now, she'd taken them into the river with her, ruining the paper. Three out of the fifteen tags she'd brought on this mission, wasted for no reason.

Her arm really hurt. Sakura checked at her pockets, wondering what else she'd wasted. There was a lump in her left pantleg that she hadn't noticed in the commotion: she pulled it out, drawing it up out of the water.

It was a tin. The tin her father had given her before she left, she realized. The blood had mostly washed off it, and it wasn't any heavier in her hands. Neither the blood nor the water had slipped inside it. That's right: she'd brought it when they'd left Kurasen's house in case they'd ended up searching for too long and she got hungry. The bear had totally driven it from her mind.

Sakura swam to shore, the tin still in her hand, and flopped out onto the mossy bank. She still didn't feel clean, far from it, but at least now she wasn't warm and sticky. She was sure her hair was stuck in an absurd mess. Who cared: it was too dark for anyone without chakra to see her anyway. She fumbled with the tin, feeling at both the catches on the side.

It clicked open, and she peered inside, drawing chakra into her eyes to pierce the darkness around her.

She didn't know what she'd expected. It was a sandwich, wheat bread with some meat, cheese, and lettuce sticking out the sides. Her dad always overpacked sandwiches. There were a half dozen umeboshi, picked plumbs, sitting alongside the sandwich, and a little chocolate; the kind that was rolled into a ball, wrapped in bright foil.

There was a small roll of paper on top of the sandwich, and Sakura picked it up and unrolled it with damp fingers, staining the corners.

_GOod Luck! For when you're thinking of home :)_

Her father has accidentally capitalized the second letter in "good" and not bothered to fix it. Sitting on the banks of the river, still soaked but not feeling cold or warm, Sakura stared at the note as its edges gradually grew damper, and lost track of time.

"Sakura?"

She jerked, almost dropping the tin. Naruto had crept up behind her; either that, or she'd been so out of it she hadn't heard him approaching. He sat down next to her, staring at the tin. "You alright?"

"Uhh…" Sakura set the note down in the tin, looking between it and her teammate. "Yeah. I think so."

"Really?" Naruto asked. It was quiet, Sakura realized. How long had she been down by the river? The town had gone back to sleep. "Cause like… that was pretty messed up."

Sakura choked. It might have been a laugh. "Yeah. I didn't, umm…" She lost track of the sentence, and Naruto glanced at her expectantly. "I don't know. I didn't think it would be like this."

She heard the footsteps approaching this time, crushing grass and spare twigs behind her, and twisted to watch their approach. Obito and Sasuke emerged from the dark; their teacher still looked exhausted and pale, but he was walking steadily. Sasuke had managed to clean most of the blood off, but his hair was stuck straight up in every direction, as though he'd been electrified. Sakura giggled, and the Uchiha stared at her.

She probably looked just as ridiculous, she thought, and a flash of self-consciousness burned her down.

"Let me tell you guys right now," Obito said, settling down on Sakura's other side. Sasuke walked ahead, looking out over the river. "This is _not_ what a C-Rank is supposed to be like."

"Well, that's a relief," Sasuke said, not looking back. "I'd really rather not do that again."

"Same." Naruto shivered. "I didn't even go in the blood. I don't know how you guys did that."

"We weren't thinking." Sasuke turned around. "Right, Sakura?"

Sakura tried to remember exactly what had driven her into the pit of blood. She'd thought that she could do it, she remembered that, but beyond that sense of urgency, and certainty…

"Yeah," she said quietly. "We weren't thinking. You were so sure about the heart, Sasuke… I just jumped in right away."

"Well," Obito said, leaning back and lying in the grass. He looked and sounded like he was about to fall asleep. "He was right." He sighed. "What a mess."

"Well, hey," Naruto said. "If this was our first C-Rank, all the others should be easy, right?" He laughed, and the sound brought a bit of life to Sakura. Naruto had a nice laugh. It was guileless and loud, and couldn't be cruel. "I mean, what, twenty-something nutcases, some A-Rank ninja-"

"S-Rank," Obito interrupted. "Definitely S-Rank." He pulled a small black book out of his pocket; it looked like a journal. "I found him in here," he said, gesturing with the book. A Bingo Book? Sakura had never seen one before, but she'd learned about them; they held lists of all the notable rogue and foreign shinobi that were of interest to the Land of Fire. Obito was a jonin, after all; it made sense that he'd have one. "Hidan, no family name. Left Yugakure, the Village of Springs, several years ago after killing some of his comrades. His profile said that he was extremely dangerous, and had notable taijutsu skills. Nothing about being immortal though."

He put the book back. "That must have been new. Whatever he was doing with his heart, he was probably trying to make it permanent." It made Sakura feel a little better to hear that, for some reason. They'd done some good. They'd killed a monster before they passed beyond mortality. That made it worth it, right?

"Jeez." Naruto whistled. "Hey, since we killed him, do we get his bounty? That would be pretty cool."

Obito laughed. "Didn't even think of that. You're a greedy little kid, you know that?" Naruto stuck his tongue out at him, and the Uchiha sat back up.

"Well, I guess I can consider it," he said. "We could split it four ways, how about that?"

 _'I got the heart,'_ Sakura thought, and the bitterness of the inner voice surprised her. _'I'm the one who swam to the bottom.'_

"That would be nice," she said out loud. "How much was his bounty, sensei?"

Obito squinted, trying to recall. "Ah, around five million, I think. Something like that"

Sakura blinked, and Naruto almost fell over. Sasuke was the only one who was unruffled, watching them both with a grin. Five million? Split four ways, that would still be over a million each. A million and two hundred fifty thousand. That was as much as she would have made on, like…

Sakura's addled brain tried to do the math; most of her D-Ranks so far had made her about eight thousand Ryo once the payment had been split up. One million two hundred fifty thousand divided by eight thousand was…

No chance. A lot of missions. A lot of money. She settled on that. Good enough.

"What do you have there, Sakura?" Obito asked, peering at the tin in her hands. Sakura blinked, looking down at it.

"Some extra food," she said. "My dad packed it for me." She found that she wasn't hungry at all. "Do you want any? It's some umeboshi, and a sandwich." Her sensei smiled at her.

"I'm good," he said, waving her off. "Appreciate the offer."

"Umeboshi?" Naruto asked, scooting over. "Hey, that's the stuff you said you liked, right? How is it?"

Sakura was surprised. They'd made their reintroductions to each other when the team had first been formed months ago. Naruto hadn't really seemed like he was paying attention at the time, but he'd pulled that out so quickly. He must have been after all.

"It's a little bitter," she said, offering the tin. Naruto reached over and plucked out one of the plums, looking at it doubtfully. "But it's good. It has a really nice texture."

Naruto took her word for it and plopped the plum in his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully, his lips twisting. "Yeah," he laughed. "Definitely bitter. But it's not bad." The Hokage's son smiled at her, and Sakura felt a little less nauseous.

"How's your arm?" Sasuke asked, and Obito's head jerked up.

"Her arm?" he asked, and Sasuke glanced at him.

"You didn't notice?" he asked, and Obito made a disgruntled face at him.

"I think I was busy fighting the immortal guy, Sasuke," he muttered. He looked over to Sakura. "Did you get hurt?"

"It was nothing," Sakura said, feeling a bit of shame. Naruto and Sasuke just had some scratches and bruises; Obito had been stabbed clean through the arm, but he didn't seem to give it much mind. Her own injury felt petty and stupid in comparison. "I got clipped by a shuriken, while we were running. I didn't even notice it."

"Let me take a look." Obito fully sat up, and Sakura presented her tricep. He took hold of it, gently rotating her arm and examining the cut. It had already stopped bleeding, partially scabbing over, but it was still three or perhaps four centimeters of muscle removed from her arm, and it stung constantly.

"You went in the blood with this?" Obito asked, and Sakura nodded, biting her lip.

"I didn't think I had a choice," she said.

"You remember what I said about the lake, right?" her sensei murmured, his Sharingan spiraling out. He examined the wound with his doujutsu, and out of curiosity Sasuke wandered over as well, doing the same thing. Sakura felt a little uncomfortable with two sets of swirling red eyes focused on her arm, but did her best to hold still.

"Yeah," she responded. "Natural energy, bad, don't drink it. I remember. I didn't swallow any of the blood."

"That's good," Obito said. "But it definitely got into your system through your arm. Sasuke, are you seeing this?"

Sakura startled, looking at both of the Uchiha. They didn't look concerned: just puzzled.

"I'm seeing _something_ ," Sasuke admitted. "I've got no idea what though."

"It's a remnant," Obito said, releasing her arm. "That _blotch_ you're seeing is a sign that the chakra migrated into her system." Sakura flinched, and Obito frowned. His hand came up, next to her face. "Do you mind?"

Sakura shook her head, and Obito pushed her head a little to the side, examining her face. His eyes glowed in the dark.

"Kai," he muttered, and Sakura felt a shock run from the top of her head to the bottom of her toes as her chakra system jumped at the sudden pulse from her sensei. He'd reset her chakra as easily as someone flipping a light on and off. Her teammates watched her carefully. Did they think she was going to go crazy or something? Sakura felt like a bug under a microscope.

"I'm not seeing anything," Obito admitted after a second. "Sakura, do you feel anything? Anything weird?"

"No," she said, pulling back. "I didn't feel anything weird in the blood, and I haven't since. It hurts, but it's a little deep, so I think that's normal." She looked down. "I was worried about the same thing, but I think it was nothing. I think when you stabbed that heart, the blood just turned back to normal. All those people died."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Obito said with a frown. "Sorry. We're just dealing with something pretty strange here, you know. I think you're fine but when we get back, I'd like you to see a medic, alright? Just get a checkup, make sure nothing is blocked up or anything. Sound good?"

"Sounds good," Sakura nodded.

"Cool," Obito said, looking like he was going to fall asleep again. Had using his Sharingan, even just for a minute, tired him out that much? "Cool. Kurasen's offering us some beds. I say we take them and leave tomorrow morning. Get back and report the mission success, you know?"

Mission success. It sounded strange, but that was what it was, Sakura thought. They'd completed the mission, even though they'd come up against the worst possible situation. Two dozen crazed fanatics and an S-Ranked ninja, all immortal to boot.

But right now, they were the ones sitting by the river, alive and discussing what they'd do tomorrow, and all those people were dead.

It felt… kind of good. She'd get to go to sleep tonight, and they wouldn't.

Right now, sleep was more appealing to Sakura than anything else in the world.

"Alright," Sasuke said. "Let's go then. And try not to wake Kurasen up." He directed the last comment at Naruto, who smirked.

"Nin-ja," he said, driving his thumb into his chest. "I'll be quiet."

And to his credit, he was.

###

Even though they left early in the morning, Paper Hill was still there to see them off. It was a cold and dim day, looking and feeling like it was about to rain, but no one seemed to care.

"Thank you!" Kurasen shouted as they crossed the bridge. "Thank you for saving us from those devils!" The whole town shouted in agreement, showering Team Seven with praise, and Sakura felt herself blush.

"Of course!" Naruto was walking backwards, waving and jumping and shouting just as loud as the civilians. "Thank you for the food! Have a good one!"

Obito just waved; Sasuke did the same. Sakura turned, and made eye contact with Haruka.

The woman didn't flinch this time. She smiled, and after a moment of hesitation Sakura smiled back. She waved, and the town cheered again. It only stopped when they were out of sight.

" _That_ isn't normal for C-Ranks either," Obito said with a grin. "So don't get used to it. People usually aren't that glad to see shinobi."

"Why not? We're pretty cool," Naruto said, and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"If shinobi are showing up outside the village, it means _something_ needs fixing," he said, giving his friend a poke. Naruto swatted at his hand, and the boys nearly devolved into a slap-fight before Naruto hopped ahead with a laugh. "We got lucky this time; this was an easy fix. Next time it might not be so easy."

"Well…" Sakura said, and her teammates looked at her. "It might not be, but let's hope." She smiled. "That was kinda nice."

"No kidding," Obito said, before suddenly snapping his fingers. He stopped, and so did his students. "Hold on one second. Almost forgot the body!" He whirled out of existence, and Team 7 was left alone in the woods.

"Man," Naruto said, looking around. "Think there's another bear around or something?" He laughed, and Sakura laughed too without much thought. It felt nice to just laugh at a stupid joke. It helped her forget there were still bits of coagulated blood in her and Sasuke's hair.

"Alright." Obito swirled back into existence right where he'd been standing. "Body's secure. _Now_ we can go."

Team Seven headed back towards Konohagakure and left Kami no Sota, which they had saved from an unspeakable fate, in the past.


	10. A Lack of Clarity

Doubt

When Sakura got back home, she paused at the threshold to her family's home, and scratched at the bandage on her arm

It itched. She wondered why she'd stopped, hefting her pack, and realized it was because she didn't want her parents to ask about it. Even though she desperately wanted to lie down in her own bed before she went to the hospital, if just for a couple minutes, she wasn't sure if she wanted to face her parents yet. Her mother would fuss; her dad would ask what had happened.

She took a deep breath and opened the door. It was unlocked; no one in Konoha would dare to rob the homes of a shinobi, and even if they were stupid enough to try they'd be caught in short order. "I'm home!"

Sakura waited for an answer, but none came. She took an uncertain step inside, slipping through the doorway. There weren't any shoes out in the entrance; she kicked hers off, and set her pack down. Sakura walked down the hall, her feet cold against the wood floor, and stepped into the kitchen. There was a note on the table, a piece of paper curved into a V and propped up into a little roof with her father's scrawl on it.

On A Mission, it read. Last Minute. Should Be Back Tomorrow. Left Some Instant Ramen For You. Hope The Mission Went Well!

Sakura stared at the note. She felt like all the air in her lungs had just vanished without her having a chance to breathe it out. Her mother had left on a mission as well, a recon job, about three days before, with no indication on when she'd be back. Her father had just returned from one yesterday, and yet he was already back out in the field. She wondered if it was with Special Jonin Anko again; her dad had said she was a tough leader, but he seemed to enjoy working with her.

Alone in the kitchen, with nothing but another note from her dad, Sakura didn't know what to do. She didn't know whether to sit down right there on the kitchen floor, or head to her room, or just stand there for the rest of the day staring at her father's note.

She might have been dreading it, she realized, but in reality the only thing she wanted more than her bed right now was her parents.

Her face twisted.

She turned around, stomping out of the kitchen and up the hallway stairs to her room. When she got there, she collapsed into her bed face-first with a sigh.

S-Rank ninja, she thought to herself blearily. We ran into an S-Rank ninja the very first time we left the village. What kind of luck was that? Her hair was still stuck together. Why was she lying down? Dumb. Just like ruining those tags. She couldn't even do things in the right order. Groaning, she rolled out of bed and wandered to the bathroom.

The Haruno family's shower had always been slow to heat up, and Sakura took her time undressing, her movements slow and sore. She only stepped into the water when the bathroom mirror had begun to fog over. The water was hot, probably hotter than it should have been, right on the threshold of enjoyable and painful, and Sakura felt her shoulders relax a little, the water pouring over her; she was still tense, she realized.

S-Rank ninja. Hair still full of blood. Why _wouldn't_ she be tense? Her arm twinged as she brought it up to probe at the mess that her hair had become.

' _Stupid. You were stupid. You would have died if you hadn't hit that shuriken out of the air, and that was just luck.'_

She felt a little faint. The water really was way too hot. She didn't change the temperature.

Sakura ran her hands through her hair, wincing at the knots, and scrubbed viciously at her arms and legs, trying to get the last of the stains out. Up, down, up, down. Her arms were going automatically; she'd forgotten to grab any soap. She reached out for it, the motion feeling weirdly foreign. She'd had to swim to the bottom of that pit. Sakura was sure she'd dream about that tonight, like she had the night they'd spent in Paper Hill. The heat, the weight, the darkness. The sound of Hidan's heart, the feeling of it bucking in her hands.

She felt nauseous again, and itched the cut on her arm, feeling the burn of the water running over it. It had finished scabbing over, but the water made it sting even more than before. What kind of luck was that.

Well, maybe it was a little lucky, since Obito had been with them. She'd have to go pick up the promissory note from the mission office after the hospital; when Team Seven had given their briefing with Obito to Iruka, who'd been watching with disbelief the whole time, her academy teacher had told them to come back later for the bounty money. Even split four ways, it would take him a little time to get permission to issue it from the Land of Fire's government.

She wondered what he'd thought of her. Iruka was a chunin. He must have noticed the blood left over on her and Sasuke.

What could she do with the money? Sakura had never had that much money before. She'd be able to keep it: her parents had promised her that whatever she made on her missions was hers to spend. She'd give some to them, of course. Sakura had no idea what she'd do with over a million Ryo. Her family could afford to not run missions for months, with that.

Maybe that would be nice. Not months. But a week or two, just relaxing. Sakura laughed, getting a little water in her mouth. Only one mission outside the village, and she was happy to sit in it for as long as she was allowed. The world was big, she'd known that, but she hadn't figured it would be so full of scary people.

Ah, that was childish. Sakura rinsed the last of the shampoo out of her hair, and then went for the conditioner. She scrubbed the remnants of the blood out, feeling the knots and clots with her finger, and watched it run down the drain. Her hands curled into fists, before she shook them out. Focus, almost done. She ran her hands down the whole length of it more than a dozen times, working out all of the tangles. The villages were always fighting, and there were plenty of people besides them out there who fought each other too. There were criminals, crazies, ideologues, and everything in between out there. She'd just run into them sooner than she'd have figured. Sakura had just assumed that when the time came for her to really fight people, other ninja or otherwise, she'd be ready. That she'd have trained enough, or had some realization about the nature of the world that would make it easy.

But that hadn't happened. She'd snatched up an S-Ranked ninja's beating heart and offered it to her sensei like a blood sacrifice of her own, and she hadn't been any different before or after. She didn't have clarity now. She just had a headache, and dirty hair, and maybe some money later in the day.

Sakura didn't really know what that meant. Maybe she wasn't smart enough to understand it, or maybe she was just too tired.

She wasn't sure how long she was in the shower after that; Sakura stared at the drain, the water pounding the back of her head, until the heat faded and the shower began to run cold. She left the bathroom with two towels: the second was wrapped around her hair, trying to dry it out. She drifted back to her bed and slipped under the covers, sinking into her pillow; her hair was growing cold against her scalp, but still, Sakura felt her eyes drifting closed.

A nap couldn't hurt, she thought. Thirty minutes, then she'd go to the hospital for her checkup. Thirty minutes would be fine. That'd give her the energy to manage the rest of the day.

Her eyes closed, and she woke up two hours later. Sakura rolled over, groggy and even sorer than before, and sighed when she spotted her clock.

"Shit."

###

When they were finished talking, Naruto and Sasuke found themselves sitting in silence for an uncomfortably long time. Their mothers watched them, both of them completely unreadable.

When Naruto had gone home with Sasuke in tow, Mikoto had already been there, sitting with Kushina. They were poring over the barrier scroll that Kushina had been working on for the last several months, Kushina pacing and muttering to herself and Mikoto standing as still as a statue, her Sharingan poring over every tiny detail of the barrier's ink. Naruto had been surprised. Usually Kushina visited Mikoto, not the other way around. Of his father, there'd been no sign.

"Gross," Kushina finally put, quite succinctly, and both Naruto and Mikoto laughed. Sasuke's mom leaned forward, looming over them; both of their parents were on the couch, and Naruto and his friend were sitting on the carpeted floor in front of them.

"Well, Obito was definitely right," she said, looking at both him and Sasuke. Naruto had always thought she was pretty, even if the right side of her face was covered in burn scars. He'd never asked his mom how her friend had ended up with those scars; she was a ninja, he figured, and sometimes ninjas caught on fire. "That's not even close to a normal C-Rank. I hope you guys don't get cold feet."

"Not a chance." Sasuke shook his head. "But…" He frowned, and so did Naruto. He could tell something had been eating Sasuke up on the way home. Sakura and Sasuke were both a little quiet usually, which Naruto didn't mind; he had plenty to talk about no matter what. But when they'd been heading back to Konoha, they'd been extra quiet.

It wasn't any surprise. They'd both gone in that pit; Naruto didn't know how he would have handled it. He wasn't afraid of blood, but he also wasn't afraid of, like, snakes, and if he'd been forced to jump into a really deep pit absolutely full of snakes he was positive he'd come out happy to never see any kind of reptile ever again. Sasuke didn't seem like he was in shock or anything, but Sakura had gone all the way to the bottom and actually grabbed Hidan's heart.

She'd just gone home, he suddenly realized. They'd all said they'd catch up later at the village gates and gone their separate ways, with Naruto and Sasuke going in the same direction. Sakura had just gone home. They hadn't invited her or anything.

Well, that made sense. She probably wanted to see her parents, the same way he had.

"We're pretty weak, huh?" Sasuke said, finishing his thought, and Naruto looked at him, his face scrunching up in confusion.

"Eh?" he asked. "Whad'ya mean? We did fine."

"Obito did fine," Sasuke said as both their mothers watched patiently. " _We_ would have died before we even understood we were in danger."

"He's right, Naruto," Kushina said, and Naruto switched his confused look to her. "You all did very well, but it was just good luck, and Obito, that let you walk away."

Naruto frowned. He knew she was right, but he didn't like accepting it. The academy had been kind of easy; if he wanted to learn something, he could buckle down and do it, so long as his parents kept him focused, and he'd be done in a week or two. It had always been that way. The academy was just school, but it still made sense to him that if it was easy, being a real ninja would have been too.

But he'd almost died on his first real mission, and the only thing that had saved him was Obito being a real badass and Sakura being able to hold her breath for a long time. So obviously that wasn't a case. Being a ninja was way harder than learning to be one.

"Okay," he said. "Yeah. That makes sense." He looked back to his friend. "So let's get stronger, Sasuke."

Sasuke shrugged. "I don't think we have a choice, Naruto." His eyes grew a little darker. "I don't think _I_ have a choice."

Naruto flinched. Sasuke had told him, maybe a year ago now, what his mom Mikoto had told him about Itachi. His friend was right; he _didn't_ have a choice but to get stronger. He sometimes forgot that, even if it was fun to come up with fantasies about beating Sasuke's brother up for what he'd done.

"Forgot about that," Naruto said, trying to draw Sasuke's thoughts off his brother. "Let's just make it so next time, we can actually help Obito, instead of him having to protect us."

"Hopefully," Kushina chimed in, "that's not going to come up again."

"Well, duh," Naruto said with a grin. "But just in case, right? If we're gonna be Obito's students, we gotta try to surpass him. That's what dad always says."

Kushina laughed. "Good point," she admitted. "Well, what's your plan then?"

Naruto jumped to his feet. "First, I'm gonna figure out dad's jutsu."

"The Rasengan?" Mikoto asked. Naruto was glad to hear that she sounded a little surprised. His dad had told him that he was giving him an A-Rank jutsu, the first he'd ever tried to learn, and if Sasuke's mom knew it right off the bat like that then Minato hadn't been messing with him.

"Yup!" Naruto started pacing a little, the same way his mom had been before they arrived. "He told me he'd teach me the next step after I figured out how to pop a water balloon with just my chakra. It's really tough, but I think I'm getting there." He stopped with a wide grin. "And once I've got it figured out, Sasuke can just copy it with his Sharingan."

"It's not quite that easy," Mikoto said, looking at her son. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said quietly. "Even if Naruto figures out the jutsu, I'll need the chakra control to actually use it. I'm going to have Obito teach me water walking; I think that's a good place to start."

Mikoto nodded, and Sasuke cocked his head. "Did Obito go to the compound? He wasn't heading for his apartment."

Obito, Naruto knew, was one of the very few Uchiha who lived outside of the clan's isolated compound. He'd asked Sasuke about it once, and his friend had shrugged and told him that his relative wasn't very popular with the rest of the clan and vice versa, whatever that meant. Neither of them were sure why. Obito was pretty cool, as far as Naruto was concerned. If most of Sasuke's family didn't like him, they were probably stupid or something.

"I'm not sure," Mikoto said. "He might have been going to visit the memorial. He usually talks with his brother a little after a mission."

"Obito has a brother?" Naruto asked. He'd never heard any of this before.

"Had," Mikoto said quietly. "His name was Shisui."

"Oh." Right, the memorial. You didn't go there to talk to people who were still alive. Naruto shrunk down a little, feeling like he'd stepped over an invisible barrier. Mikoto wasn't mad, and neither was Sasuke. They were both just… sad. It made him uncomfortable.

"What about Sakura?" his mom asked, and Naruto grabbed at the sudden lifeline to escape the awkward silence he'd created.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, and his mom wrinkled her nose.

"You and Sasuke are both gonna get stronger," she said. "You're gonna teach Sasuke the Rasengan. What about her?"

"Oh!" Naruto said. He blinked. He hadn't even thought of that. "I mean, I could, I guess. When we figure it out. I dunno if she's super interested in ninjutsu. Actually-!" He smiled, remembering the cave. "She was really good with a sword!"

"A sword?" Kushina asked, and Naruto pantomimed the chokuto that Sakura had picked up, swinging the invisible blade around.

"Yeah! It was awesome!" he said. "She grabbed a sword from one of the crazies and _bam_!" He swung the imaginary blade again in a quick diagonal cut. Sakura had been a lot more scared, and she'd screamed a little when she'd swung, but his mom didn't need to know that. "Knocked a shuriken right out of the air! Scared the guy who threw it so much he just froze. She held onto it the whole time too."

"Sounds pretty impressive," Mikoto said. "Maybe you should bring that up with her and Obito. He's always had a knack for kenjutsu. If she's interested, he'd be an excellent teacher."

"Not a bad idea," Sasuke said, leaning forward. "It would be nice to have someone with blade skills on the team. I don't think either of us are very inclined towards it."

"Well, that seems like a good place to start," Kushina said. "Keep it in mind, huh?" She rose off the couch.

"Anyone want a snack?"

###

Sitting without company in a bustling restaurant, Obito Uchiha wondered, not for the first time, why for the last seven and some years he had usually eaten alone.

It wasn't because Obito didn't enjoy spending time with people, or having meals with them. Sometimes, he thought it might just be a bad habit he'd fallen into. Even after Kakashi had died, he'd still done his best to stay connected with people. His newly evolved Sharingan had made him an object of interest with his clan, and his sensei had been careful to make sure he didn't grow apart from his comrades. It was a danger for anyone who'd lost teammates, and Obito had avoided it handily.

After all, avoiding things was his speciality.

Yet, after Itachi had left the village, Obito's life had grown quieter and quieter. He'd been less welcome with his family, and his teacher and teammate had grown busier and busier. He had friends, or at least he thought he did, but he'd started taking so many missions that he'd rarely seen them.

Maybe that was why Minato had stuck him with his son, and Sasuke, and Sakura, Obito thought. To get him to slow down. It was a strange feeling, but he didn't mind having a team to train at all. It helped that he'd known two of them rather well right off the bat, even though that had just made him feel guilty about Sakura.

His food arrived; he'd decided on a Gyudon. Obito had always preferred simple and savory food, stuff he could make on his own if he needed to. Beef, rice, veggies, maybe a bit of soy sauce: that was all he needed to be content. He thanked the waiter, and the man gave him an uncomfortable smile before going to help another booth.

Sakura, he thought, picking up a set of chopsticks and mixing together the beef-bowl until all of its carefully placed layers were helplessly inseparable from one another. He didn't get why this restaurant did that. Who wanted to eat the beef, then the veggies, then the rice? They were way better mixed together, right? Maybe it was just a presentation thing.

His female student had surprised him. Obito had been watching her carefully on their first C-Rank together. He'd already been confident that Naruto and Sasuke would be able to handle whatever came their way; they had the competence, and the mentality. He'd been right and wrong about that, turned out. Even if Sasuke was smart for his age, and knew plenty of Uchiha techniques, he still had the judgement of a teenager. Obito's heart had almost stopped when he'd jumped down to intervene with his fight against Hidan, and the rest of the team had followed him.

Obito wished he could just call them stupid, but he wasn't under any illusions. Hidan might have killed him if not for their help. He'd been steadily cutting the man to shreds, but he'd been almost exhausted by the end of the fight; just a bit of bad luck, some sloppy footwork, and that scythe might have punched a hole in his heart or his head instead of his arm.

Sakura had been the one to jump into that pit. Sasuke had gone first, but he hadn't been able to actually reach the heart. Sakura, the one who he'd been worried would crumble under pressure, had gone in without hesitation. She'd endured all that blood and seized Hidan's heart.

That was good, he thought. That meant the girl who didn't know _why_ she wanted to be a ninja was definitely prepared to be one. Still, Obito wished that she hadn't had to prove that to him at all. It was just-

"Mind if we sit down?"

Staring at his beef with his grip around the chopsticks so tight they were in danger of snapping, Obito didn't notice two people approaching his booth until they were right on top of him. He jerked to the side on reflex, looking over to the familiar voice.

Minato Namikaze watched him with a faint smile, the same kind he wore every time Obito did something he found amusing. He wasn't wearing his Hokage outfit; just plain black pants and a white shirt. Somehow, he made it look pretty official.

"You alright, Obito?" Behind their sensei, Rin Nohara gave him a little wave, and Obito blinked. She was still wearing her hospital uniform: she must have come straight from work.

"Uh…" Obito blinked again. "Yeah, no problem." The Hokage and Rin slipped into the booth opposite them, and the waiter hurried back to take their order.

"Water," Minato said. Rin asked for the same, and some sake, and the man was gone again.

"So," the Fourth Hokage said. "I've heard from a _couple_ people now that you guys had an interesting mission."

Obito laughed. "Yeah, something like that." He turned the piece of beef he had in his chopsticks over. "You mind if I…?"

"Go for it," Rin said, and Obito took a couple grateful bites, using the quiet it bought him to gather his thoughts.

"Yeah," he repeated, setting his chopsticks down in the bowl. Still plenty of food left, but he could find time to eat it through the conversation. "Sorry, sensei. We ended up in a rough situation."

"It happens," Minato said with a shrug. "I'm sure Naruto was able to handle it." He looked Obito up and down: the Fourth had always had a peculiar way of analyzing people, Obito thought, that made it obvious you were being appraised without being judged or threatened. "You seem alright."

"I was fine, besides a little chakra exhaustion," Obito said, taking another bite. He raised up his arm, twisting it to and fro for emphasis. "I caught his scythe in my arm once, but it was a clean wound." He looked at Rin with a little smile. "Those medical jutsu you've shown me took care of it without much issue. Can't even feel it now."

Rin raised an eyebrow. "A scythe?" she asked, and Obito nodded.

"Yeah. What'd you tell her, sensei?" he asked, and Minato shook his head.

"Rin came here on her own," he said. "We just happened to run into each other. I guess we both wanted to see how you were doing."

"I had one of your students today," Rin continued.

Obito cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"You sent her in, remember?" Rin grinned.

Right, Sakura. He'd asked her to check in with the hospital about the cut on her arm. It had slipped his mind for a moment. "Sakura?" he asked. "Was she alright?"

"Fine," Rin said. "So far as we could tell, anyway. I decided to take her, even if it was just a checkup." She gave him a mischievous smile, and Obito smiled back uncertainly. "I got the impression she already knew me."

"Really? Obito asked. "I haven't talked about you much-"

Rin's smile fell away, and Obito realized he was a moron. She started speaking again before he could say anything else.

"Anyway," she said, and Obito couldn't help but notice that Minato was resisting the urge to laugh. "She told me that you and Sasuke had seen something weird with your Sharingan, but so far as I could tell the wound was clean. She does have a little foreign chakra in her though, a spot on her heart."

Obito rocked back, and Rin held her hands up in a placating gesture. " _Nothing_ to worry about," she said with emphasis, and Obito relaxed, marginally. "It's not affecting her system, and it's not circulating. It's like a clot, almost. If it were blood, that'd be a problem, but it's just a bit of natural energy and chakra mixed up in a weird way that refuses to move on." She laughed, a melodic sound that Obito loved. "If she tried unlocking the Eighth Gate she might have some complications, but if she did that she'd be dead anyway, so…"

"Right," Obito said. "Well, that's a relief. Swimming through all that blood was bad enough. If it gave her trouble, I…"

He didn't know how to finish that sentence. What would he do? Feel bad? He already felt bad for letting his team get put in danger. The waiter arrived with drinks, and Minato took a sip of his water.

"Obito," he said. "You're pouting."

Obito straightened up self-consciously. He'd always been self-conscious of how round his face was for an Uchiha. He thought it made even a marginally unhappy expression look like a pout, which was why he tried smiling so much.

"Sorry sensei," he said, frustration leaking through. Minato and Rin watched him curiously. "I'm just…"

"Sore?" Rin asked, and Obito shook his head. She reached for her sake.

"I feel stupid," he admitted. "I didn't want to put any of them through something like that. I picked a C-Rank that I thought would be simple and easy, to ease them in. I just wanted…" He searched for a better word, and was unable to find it. "I just wanted to keep them safe, I guess."

"You did," Rin said. "Nothing to worry about there."

Obito frowned. "I wasn't good enough. Even just two months of staying in the village with them put me out of practice. And I let them talk me into too much. Naruto wanted to go ahead, and I let him: I just made him stay behind me. If I'd been thinking straight, I would have just kept them in the Kamui. I should have just sucked them up the moment things started getting weird." He dropped his head. "I told you, sensei. I don't know if I was ready for a team. I let them down."

The Fourth Hokage watched him for a moment, and Obito stared into his bowl of half eaten beef, his gut churning.

"Obito, I gave you my son, you know," Minato finally said. "I wouldn't have done that if I didn't think you could train him _and_ keep him safe."

Obito looked up, and the Hokage crossed his arms.

"Your Sharingan is amazing enough that your main issue has always been self-confidence," he said, and Obito felt his face go red. It was a little brutal to say it so straightforwardly, wasn't it? "Shinobi never stop learning, and that team is another lesson for you. You're definitely worthy of being their teacher."

"Minato-" he started to say, and his teacher raised one hand. Obito stopped. That was a Hokage motion, not a Minato one.

"Sensei always said that a shinobi is one who endures," Minato said, looking Obito dead in the eyes. He was one of the few people who did that; even other Leaf ninja usually didn't look into Obito's Sharingan. He'd heard it around a couple times that it was considered bad luck. Obito wondered where Jiraiya was now. He'd trained under the Toad Sage himself for a little over a year, some time after Minato had officially been appointed as Hokage, and sometimes he found himself missing the melodramatic giant of a man. "And he was definitely right about that."

Minato leaned forward, setting his elbows on the table and clasping his hands. "But we all know," he said gently, "that being a shinobi is more than just enduring. A shinobi is also one who sacrifices."

' _I know it.'_

Obito couldn't help but hear those last words in the echo of his teacher's own.

"No one had to sacrifice anything this time, Obito," Minato said with a smile. "Just their hygiene I guess, if what I heard about what Sasuke and Sakura did is true. You can try to keep your team as safe as you want, but if you don't succeed, that's not a failure on your part."

He understood what he was talking about, Obito knew. Minato was the one here who had actually lost one of his students.

"If they have to sacrifice," Minato said, "then all that's happened is they've learned what being a shinobi is. You don't have to worry about keeping them safe from that."

"I'd really prefer to," Obito muttered, feeling like he'd lost an argument no one had been having. Rin laughed.

"That's nice of you, Obito," she said with a smile. "You're always too nice for your own good. Don't worry about those kids. They'll be fine. Just focus on training them." She winked. "If you make it so they can protect themselves instead of you having to keep an eye for them, that'll be a lot easier on you, right?"

Obito sighed. "You always were the smart one, huh?"

Rin's smile grew a little sadder. "Well, someone had to be after Kakashi was gone," she said. "I didn't see you stepping up."

"Rude," Obito grinned, taking another bite of his beef. A thought occurred to him. "Do you guys want to stay for dinner? Or do you have somewhere to be?"

"I could eat," Rin said, and Minato nodded as well.

"Cool," Obito smiled. It would be nice to not eat alone again for a change. "Cool."


	11. Training and Time

Life Goes On

It was another month before Team Seven took another C-Rank. Once more, they left the village, this time in search of a missing courtier. A servant of the Daimyo's court had gone missing, and the Land of Fire's government had been concerned he was kidnapped.

This time, the mission held no surprises.

The courtier, a portly man named Nobu, was located in short order in a small town near the southern border of the country, unbelievably drunk and raging at a dead end job that he was worried he would be trapped in for the rest of his life. Obito had been sympathetic, until the man had vomited on him. After that, he'd been immediately delivered to the capital. Team Seven returned to Konoha, and Sakura was ecstatic to share a collective sigh of relief with her teammates.

When they got back to the village, the leaves were just beginning to turn. Autumn was coming to the Village Hidden in the Leaves, bathing their home in a beautiful flurry of red, orange, and yellow.

They'd all thought, in their own quiet way, that perhaps every mission would be like their first one. But it wasn't to be. Most C-Rank missions, just like D-Ranks (which increasingly involved cleaning up the millions and millions of leaves that littered the village), were boring and routine. Few of them were even violent. And so, Team Seven fell into a familiar and comfortable pattern.

###

Thirty-five days after Sakura had retrieved Hidan's heart, Naruto snapped his fingers.

"Shoot," he said, the noodles in his mouth rendering the word garbled and barely understandable. "I totally forgot."

"Something important, Naruto?" Obito looked over, and so did Sakura. They were having lunch together at a ramen place that Naruto loved; Sakura didn't really understand why he liked the food so much, but it definitely wasn't bad. Maybe noodles just weren't her thing.

"Kinda," he said with a slurp. "My dad wanted to meet me later. He wanted to see how I was doing with the Rasengan."

"How's that going?" Sakura asked. Her teammate had carried water balloons everywhere he went for a long time now, furiously trying to pop them with his chakra. It made her feel a little bad, but after seeing all the trouble Naruto had gone through trying to learn the jutsu, the gap between them had seemed a little less impossible to breach. Even after more than two months of trying, Naruto still hadn't managed to burst the balloon.

Naruto stuck out his tongue. "Bad," he said. He was grinning through. Sakura was coming to admire that about Naruto. It didn't matter if he was frustrated or not, he always grinned. It didn't seem false to her either: her teammate was just happy, and didn't let things get him down. She hoped he'd always be that way.

"What about you?" Sasuke asked, taking a subdued slurp of his ramen, and Sakura turned to him. "How's your kenjutsu going, Sakura? I haven't seen much of it recently."

That was true, to Sakura's regret. Obito had been focusing them all on controlling their chakra with more precision since they'd gotten back from their first mission outside the village. Maybe to help Naruto learn the Rasengan, maybe just to expand their skillset and prepare them for more advanced training. It could be hard to tell with their sensei sometimes. He was friendly, and he frequently joked with them, but he seemed to prefer letting them figure things out on their own, with a little helpful prodding.

Teaching them to walk on water had been a prime example of that. Obito had met them by one of the rivers that ran through the wilderness of the village's territory, watching them with a coy grin.

"Follow me," he'd said, striding right across the water and then turning to watch them expectantly. It wasn't very far or deep, and so they'd all done as he asked, wading through the water after him and coming out on the other side.

"Well done," he'd said, and Naruto had laughed. All they'd done was walk through some water: what was he congratulating them for? Obito had just grinned, and walked back to the other side of the bank.

"Alright," he'd smirked. "Now come back across without getting your knees wet."

That had been an interesting day. It had taken all of them a couple hours to figure out how to navigate the river, with its constant current and occasional swells. Sakura, to her astonishment, had been first to manage it. She'd considered asking for help, but hadn't wanted to be the first one to do so. So instead, she'd tried to look at it as logically as possible.

The reason you sank into water is because you were denser than it, she'd thought. Really simple physics, and for that reason apparently inescapable. So, how could a ninja use chakra to escape that universal rule of density? She couldn't alter her own density. At least, she was pretty sure of that. Wasn't the henge just a physical transformation, in a similar manner? But you couldn't alter your density or weight with a henge, only your physical shape. If you turned yourself into a giant shuriken, you'd be as aerodynamic as one, but still just as heavy as yourself. Even if she turned herself into a log or something that would float on water, she'd still sink.

So it couldn't be modifying her own density. The epiphany came to Sakura slowly, as she watched Sasuke pace, sending stutters of chakra into his feet and blowing small gaps in the grass of the bank. He must have picked something up with his Sharingan, she'd realized.

She couldn't alter her density, or the water's. That meant if water walking was something basic enough that Obito expected them to be able to learn it, it had to be based on a simple principle. All she had to do was use her chakra to provide a buoyant buffer, something that would push her up without actively disrupting the liquid. Like a lifeguard's buoy, but on her feet.

Sakura had gone to the bank and started experimentally dipping her foot in, feeling the play of chakra down her leg and trying to direct it as neatly as possible. Naruto had tried to walk across the river on his hands, his legs waving in the air and his head submerged, and Obito had leapt to him and pushed him over for his trouble, laughing as Naruto had come up soaked and squawking.

Up, down. Sakura had spent five minutes just pushing her foot in and out of the water, squinting and trying to control the exact amount of chakra being ejected from the bottom of her foot. Too much and it blew a hole in the water like a gust of air, too little and her foot slipped right in with a little resistance, as though the water were pushing back. But after five minutes, she'd managed to make it so that one foot would settle firmly on the surface, even if she put all of her weight on it.

So she'd done the same thing for the other, and then slowly waddled across the river, one foot barely an inch in front of the other the whole way.

That had been exciting, even exulting. The way Obito had smiled at her had made her feel unbelievably proud.

But Kenjutsu wasn't like that at all. Kenjutsu was frustrating. Even with both her sensei and her father working with her, Sakura felt like she wasn't making progress.

"Bad," she said, mimicking Naruto, and Sasuke chuckled. It wasn't mean. At least, she didn't think so. He'd always been harder to read.

"Well…" he said with a shrug. "I guess you need to spend more time with Obito."

"Sensei," Obito said with a grin, and Sasuke shot him an insolent look. "Obito- _Sensei_ , little guy."

"Of course," Sasuke said with a tiny smirk. "And what do you think of my suggestion, _sensei_?"

"Actually," Obito said, "I think I might be too advanced a partner for Sakura."

Sakura looked over to him, feeling her stomach sink. Did Obito mean that she wasn't skilled enough to learn? She hadn't thought her sword skills were _that_ bad: she'd bought a practice blade with some of the bounty money she'd earned, and Obito had been teaching her various forms and footwork. Had she been that useless with it?

"Don't get the wrong idea," he said, catching her look, and Sakura sighed in embarrassment. "You've definitely got potential. But I think you might learn a bit quicker with someone else. It's been so long since I studied the basics that I've been practically learning with you." He laughed. "It's good when that stuff becomes so second nature you barely remember it anymore, but it makes for a lousy teacher, right?"

So, he meant it when he said he was too advanced for her. It wasn't an excuse. Sakura looked down into her bowl.

"That's why," Obito continued, "I'm thinking that Sakura should start out learning with someone else." Sakura looked up at him, a little confused. "When you've got the basics down, then we can pick back up, and I can teach you some trickier stuff."

"Someone else?" Sasuke asked before Sakura could. "Who do you mean?"

"One of Gai's students," Obito said, and Sasuke winced.

"Oh!" Naruto said, almost jumping out of his seat. "The green guy?" Sakura wasn't sure who he was talking about.

"Green guy?" she asked Obito, and her sensei grinned.

"Yup," he said. "Might Gai. Konoha's premier taijutsu specialist, and a very green guy."

###

"Obito!" Might Gai shouted at the top of his lungs when they arrived at the field, before jumping into a leaping kick and driving his foot straight through their sensei's head.

Sakura and Naruto stumbled backwards, falling on their backs in shock as the lunatic in green spun and tried to kick Obito in half. The second attack was just as useless as the first; Obito just watched him in amusement, crossing his arms as the kick passed harmlessly through him. Sasuke was much the same; their teammate just sighed, taking a seat on his own and watching the show.

"Good to see you too, Gai." Obito grinned, and Sakura watched in shock as Gai attacked one last time, driving a series of punches too fast for her to see through Obito's chest.

He really was very green, she thought. Everything he wore was green; it looked like it might be some kind of jumpsuit, with a matching top and bottom. Even his sandals were a dim, grassy color.

"Hmm!" Gai declared, coming to a stop. "As ever, you are elusive, Obito!" He smiled; he must have brushed his teeth several times a day, Sakura thought, because they were blindingly white. "Your reflexes are superb as always!"

Her sensei rolled his eyes. "Like I said the other fifty-eight times, Gai, it's automatic. By now if I see you coming, I just turn the Kamui on just in case."

"Well, that is a wonderful precaution!" Gai gave the Uchiha a thumbs up, and Sakura's teacher smiled. "But even with your foresight, one day, I _will_ strike you!"

"Looking forward to it," Obito laughed. "But I'm not here to spar today."

"If not to spar," Gai asked with a sly look, "then why?" He glanced around at Sakura and her teammates, all of whom were still on the ground. "Perhaps there is a lesson the Green Beast can teach your students that you cannot, hmm?"

"Well, something like that," Obito said, and Gai clashed his fists together in excitement.

"I knew it!" he said. "Well, we shall start with four-hundred pushups, at least; your cousin looks a little weedy." Sasuke made a vaguely offended sound, and both Naruto and Sakura snorted. "And then-!"

"Actually," Obito cut his friend off, and Gai frowned. "We're just here for Sakura today."

"Sakura?" Gai asked, and Sakura scrambled to her feet and gave a slight bow. Gai looked her up and down. "Well, she seems enthusiastic enough."

"Her taijutsu is fine," Obito said. "Right now, she's trying to learn kenjutsu."

"Ah!" Gai's eyes lit up. "You do not seek a master; you seek another student!"

"Precisely," Obito said. He chuckled. "Always get right to the heart of it, don't you?"

"I prefer to be direct!" Gai declared, before returning his attention to Sakura. Even just being watched by him was intimidating, Sakura thought. The man had so much energy it was like he was going to burst at any moment, and having all of his focus on her made her fill up with nervous jitters. "So, you intend to be a swordswoman?" he asked, and Sakura was suddenly unsure.

"I think so," she said, and Gai cocked his head. "I didn't have any interest in the academy, but I picked up a sword on our first C-Rank, and…"

"Ah…" Gai nodded. "That nasty business." He was still bursting with energy, but he grew a little more somber. Sakura could see then that he was more than just a slightly insane martial artist; there was a bit of commiseration in Gai's eyes as he looked at her. "What you find interest in while learning and what you find comforting on the battlefield can be very different. If a blade felt good in your hands while you fought, then a blade is what you should learn." He smiled again, his somber aura blown away in an instant. "After all, when should you be most comfortable, if not when fighting for your life?"

Sakura blinked. "I guess you're right," she said, and the man's grin grew wider.

"Come, then!" he said, gesturing grandly to the west. "I will introduce you to my students! I believe among them you will meet someone who will help you find that comfort!"

Team Seven walked with him. Gai occasionally threw more blows at Obito, all of which passed through him; their sensei ignored all the attacks, not even pausing when he was speaking.

"Do you ever think you're actually gonna hit him?" Naruto asked after about a minute, and Gai grinned at him.

"Of course!" he declared. "All shinobi have a weakness! Even your father, young man, as hard as that might be to believe!"

"Oh?" Sasuke asked. "And what would Obito's be then?"

"His ghostly nature is certainly a challenge," Gai said, stroking his chin, and Obito mimicked the action good-naturedly. "But it is a tiring technique, and my endurance outstrips his own. I am not called the Green Beast for nothing!"

"I'm pretty sure you are, actually," Obito said. "Didn't you come up with that name?"

"I did!" Gai said proudly. "But that is because I have the speed, strength, and stamina of a Beast! It was the only fitting appellation!" He quirked an eyebrow. "And perhaps you are simply jealous that you have not come up with an equally catchy name, "Mangekyo No Obito," hmmm?"

"Of course not!" Obito declared, and Gai laughed. Sakura grinned; her sensei was sweating.

"I recall all your failed attempts as surely as you do not, Obito," Gai said, and Team Seven found itself leaning in. "Obito 'The Phantom.' Obito 'The Killer Ghost.' Obito 'Of the Bloody Eye.' Obito-"

"Heyyyyyy!" Obito interrupted, just as Naruto began to break down laughing. "That's your team over there, right?!"

Sakura looked where Obito was looking and found three teenagers watching them approach from the trees. They were all a little older and taller than her and her team. There were two boys and one girl, the same composition as most of the teams the academy put out. One of the boys looked like a miniature version of Gai, to Sakura's surprise. They didn't have similar faces, but they had identical outfits and haircuts. The other was unmistakably a Hyuuga, his milky eyes watching them approach without any obvious emotion. He had long, flowing black hair, and his hands were covered in bandages.

The last, the girl, was a couple inches taller than her companions, and wore a simple white vest. Her hair was in a bun, and a large scroll, as big around as her, was strapped to her back.

The training ground they stood in was torn to pieces, small craters punched in the ground everywhere and shuriken, kunai, and other weapons littering the whole place. A target post had been torn him half, the bottom three feet of it sticking dismally out of the ground.

"Ah, sensei!" the boy who looked like Gai shouted. "You have returned with company!"

"Indeed, Lee!" Gai shouted back. "This is Mangekyo no Obito!"

There wasn't a lick of hesitation: Lee charged straight at Obito and tried to tackle him, soaring right through his chest. Sakura's sensei sighed.

"So, now you've got a little doppelganger?" he asked, sounding weary, and Sakura resisted the urge to laugh. "He wasn't like this when you started out."

"I did not see Gai-sensei's wisdom, starting out!" Lee said as he finished rolling to his feet, turning to face Obito. "But he was absolutely correct; if you can strike a ghost, you can strike anything!"

He was even louder than his master. Sakura finally broke down with a laugh, and Lee glanced at her. To her astonishment, he blushed.

Had a boy ever blushed at her? Sakura froze, totally unsure of how to react, but Obito saved her from having to worry about it.

"I'm not a ghost," he said glumly. "Why don't you introduce us to your teammates?"

"Of course!" Lee said, as both his companions approached. "This is Neji!" he said, pointing to the Hyuuga. "A genius in the Gentle Fist, who I will no doubt surpass!"

Neji laughed; it sounded a little mean, Sakura thought, but his face seemed nice enough. "Not anytime soon," he said, and Lee huffed. He looked them over. "So, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Namikaze," he said, his voice a little low, and Sakura's teammates straightened up at the attention. "Your sensei is Mangekyo no Obito, is he?"

"Seems that way," Naruto said with a frown, and Sakura watched from the side, wondering why Neji had focused solely on her teammates and completely ignored her.

"That's good," Neji said. "It would be a shame to defeat you if you had a substandard teacher. People would consider it an excuse."

Sasuke stepped forward, an invisible charge passing between him and the Hyuuga, and Sakura blinked, wondering what was happening.

"What do you mean?" she asked, and Neji stared at her.

"I don't know you," he said, his voice curious, and Sakura blinked again.

"I'm Sakura Haruno," she said, extending her hand, and after a moment Neji took it in a firm handshake.

"It's nice to meet you, Sakura Haruno," he said, inclining his head slightly. "I have no interest in defeating you."

What a strange guy. "Well, that's fine," Sakura said, trying to dispel the tension. "I've got no interest in being defeated by you, so I guess we're on the same level."

Neji laughed. "Indeed." He released her hand. To Sakura's relief, the nascent tension was gone.

"Ah…" Lee said, some of his thunder stolen by his teammate's words. "And this is Tenten."

The tall girl stepped forward with a smile. "Nice to meet you all," she said with a wave, and Sakura smiled back. "What brings you to our little corner of the woods?"

"Tenten!" Gai shouted, and the girl jumped. "Sakura here plucked a sword from the hands of an enemy, and it sung to her!"

"Uh…" Sakura said, looking over to the man. Obito was facepalming behind him. "I wouldn't… quite put it that way, Master Gai."

"Ah!" Gai stepped back. "My apologies! How would you put it?"

Sakura's eyes went wide, and she felt her face go red. "I, uh-"

"She picked it up," Naruto said suddenly, "and whacked a shuriken right out of the air." Tenten looked surprised, nodding slowly, and Naruto glanced at Sakura. "She was good with it, and she'd been trying to get better," he said, and now Sakura was the one blushing. "I bet she could be real good, with someone to practice with."

"Ahhhh," Tenten said with an understanding tone. "You think she'd be a good training partner, sensei?"

"A wonderful one!" Gai declared. "She is young, and persistent! I believe you and she would do well to learn from one another, Tenten!" He grinned. "Not to mention, it would force Obito to spend more time around me. Eventually, he will slip up." Obito shook his head, and Sasuke patted him on the shoulder with mock compassion.

Tenten laughed. "Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt," she said, and Sakura smiled at her tone. "Besides, you guys are all obsessed with your fists anyway; it would be nice to have some practice with someone else who appreciates a sword." She looked at Sakura. "Do you appreciate a sword?"

"I don't know," Sakura said with a shrug. She gave Naruto an appreciative look, and the blond grinned and scratched the back of his head. "But I want to find out."

"Good enough for me," Tenten declared. "Let's get started."

###

Seventy-four days after her first C-Rank, Sakura knocked Tenten's sword out of her hands.

They both watched it go, equally startled, as it spun off into the air and buried itself several inches into the dirt. Tenten looked down at her and Sakura looked back, very aware, as always, of the height difference between them. Her sword, one she'd borrowed from her training partner, was still in her hand; standing there holding a naked blade with Tenten disarmed in front of her, Sakura didn't know what to do.

The older girl smiled. "Nice one," she laughed, and the tension of the moment dissolved without ceremony. It was a sunny day, approaching the afternoon, and the two of them were alone in one of Konoha's hundreds of training grounds. She turned, walking after the sword, and drew it out of the earth. "I didn't see that coming."

"You weren't gripping the sword," Sakura said. One of the first things that Tenten had taught her beyond the basics of improving her footwork and form was that it was critical for a shinobi to always keep hold of their weapon with chakra: otherwise, a strong blow would easily tear the weapon out of their hands. The only reason she wouldn't have been doing that…

"Well, I'm still going a little easy on you," Tenten said with a grin, flourishing her blade. "But now that you've disarmed me, you've proved that's not necessary anymore." She sheathed it behind her back, placing it back in the sealing scrolls she carried everywhere with her. "Here, gimme it back. We're done for now."

Sakura gingerly returned the sword, keeping the blade facing away from Tenten. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're a natural," Tenten said, and Sakura blushed. "Well, maybe natural is the wrong word cause you didn't pick it up right away." She turned, waving for Sakura to follow her. They walked together to the other side of the field, towards the target posts opposite the dirt pit they'd been practicing in.

"I was frustrated getting started," Sakura admitted, and Tenten chuckled.

"Yeah, that was obvious," she said, and Sakura laughed as well. "But it's only been a month and some and you've already gotten to the point where I'm going to have to start using chakra for our spars." She glanced down at her. "That's impressive. I get the feeling that you could have done whatever you put your mind to; you're smart enough, and you put the work in."

"Well…" Sakura looked south, over to the back of the Hokage Monument. "I don't know if I would have taken things this seriously."

"Yeah," Tenten grinned. "We're kinda alike, you know?"

"What?" Sakura asked, and her sparring partner shrugged. Tenten was older than her, and, though Sakura wouldn't admit this out loud for fear of being teased, she thought she was much cooler as well. She'd never considered a similarity between the two of them besides their kenjutsu.

"We both ended up on interesting teams, and it pushed us in interesting directions." They came to a stop about thirty meters from the target posts, and Tenten set down her scroll. "They both pushed us."

"I don't know about that," Sakura said quietly.

"I don't mean like forced." Tenten removed several dozen shuriken from the scroll, laying them out in neat rows. "I mean that being near that made us want to be better. So we wouldn't fall behind." She looked back at Sakura. "You're on a team with an Uchiha prodigy and the Hokage's son. You must have been worried about that."

She was still worried about that. Sakura just nodded.

"I ended up with Neji and Lee," Tenten continued. "Neji might be from the branch house, but he's a prodigy just like Sasuke. Maybe even better." She laughed. "And Lee might be complete garbage at ninjutsu and genjutsu, but he took that and made his taijutsu better than it has any right to be. He's already way beyond the average chunin there. With those guys on either side of me, I felt like I needed something of my own."

She threw seven shuriken, and scored seven direct hits on the various targets scattered across the posts, bullseyeing each one without apparent effort. Sakura smiled.

"So you made it so you'd never miss," she said, and Tenten nodded.

"I made it so I'd never miss," she said, and punctuated the point with another ten shuriken and another ten bullseyes. She wasn't kidding, Sakura thought. She and Tenten had been training their kenjutsu together for several weeks now, and whenever they finished Tenten would practice her aim. In all that time, Sakura had never once seen her miss.

Tenten threw another brace of shuriken, and two of them angled into each other, deflecting off at wild angles to score bullseyes on the sides of the posts.

"What do you mean by branch house?" Sakura asked. She hadn't heard the term before. Tenten's eyes narrowed.

"The Hyuuga aren't like the other clans," she said, hurling yet more shuriken, along with a couple kunai. Hit, hit, hit. Sakura didn't know how she managed it. "There's the main family, and the branch family. I don't know what determines it, but if you're branch family like Neji, you're basically a servant to the main family." She started walking forward to retrieve her tools, and Sakura followed, interested in hearing more. "Neji's father is the twin brother of the head of the clan right now, but he's still branch. Maybe he was born second or something. That means Neji is too."

"The head of the Hyuuga?" Sakura asked. "Wouldn't that be Hinata's father?" She hadn't seen any of her classmates, Hinata included, in several weeks, and sometimes she found herself missing them. Sakura hadn't been incredibly close to anyone in her class, even Ino or Hinata, but it had been nice to be part of the group regardless.

"Yeah," Tenten nodded. "She's Neji's closest cousin. You know, twin dads." She screwed up her face. "That must be kinda weird. They spar a lot: he always wins." She laughed. "He doesn't seem to mind; he doesn't hate her or the main branch or anything like that, but he definitely likes beating them. I guess to him fighting Hinata is like fighting the whole concept of the clan."

"Hmm." They fell into a comfortable silence, and Sakura picked up several kunai of her own. Hitting a bullseye from a hundred feet away wasn't impossible for her, but there was no way she could match Tenten there. Her first knife overshot and buried itself high on the post: the second didn't have enough power, and fell short by a foot. She huffed, and Tenten giggled.

"I don't know how you do it," she said, and Tenten shrugged.

"You'd get it, with time. I've been doing this for more than a year now," she said, proving the point with another perfectly thrown knife. "Like I said, you're smart enough to figure out just about anything, I think." She looked back, the sun shining in her eyes and making her squint. "Isn't that why you became a shinobi?"

Sakura felt a chill run down her back, and Tenten quirked her head. She'd shown something, Sakura realized, in her eyes or her body language.

"What?" Tenten asked, and Sakura frowned.

"Why did you?" she asked, and Tenten blinked. "Become a shinobi, I mean."

"Hmmm." Tenten looked away from the blinding sun, and from Sakura. "Well, I don't have a family. There wasn't anyone pushing for me to become a ninja. Though I guess a lot of orphans become ninja because it's the best option for them. But when I was young, I heard stories about the Sannin, and Tsunade." She gave a sheepish smile. "I guess that inspired me."

The Sannin. Sakura only knew the basics: three incredibly famous shinobi from the Leaf who'd been instrumental in the Second War. Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade. She had no idea where any of them were now.

"Tsunade invented the medical division," Tenten said, and Sakura started. She hadn't known that. "And she was the strongest woman alive, supposedly. So I wanted to be a medic, and I wanted to be strong."

She chuckled. "But when I ended up with Gai-sensei, it became obvious really quickly that I didn't have the control or patience to be a medic. I kept killing everything I was given to practice on; fish and stuff. I couldn't even separate coffee from cream without blowing the cup up. I guess I have violent chakra."

Like the balloon, Sakura thought. Naruto had finally managed to pop the water balloon just two weeks before, circulating his chakra through the water so violently that the balloon burst. He'd been exuberant, until he'd come back the next day. His father had given him a rubber ball about the size of his hand upon receiving the news, apparently.

Now, he had to break an even harder material without help from the water. Sakura wondered what kind of jutsu could possibly require such precise and directed chakra control, without even an elemental affinity.

She snapped back to the present as Tenten continued. "I was heartbroken at first, but Gai-sensei told me that Tsunade probably hadn't set out to become a great medic from the start; she'd just ended up where she was best." She plucked the last of the shuriken from the post, sealing it back into her scroll. "So, I started messing around with ninja tools, and with fuinjutsu, and I ended up with this. And now, I'm going to follow it as far as it'll take me. In that way, I think I'm still following the person who inspired me."

So, Tenten had become a shinobi because someone had inspired her. That made sense to Sakura; plenty of people did things for that reason.

"Why'd you ask, anyway?" Tenten said, and Sakura sighed.

"I didn't have anything like that," she admitted. "Obito-sensei asked me, the first day, why I'd become a shinobi. And I didn't know. I didn't have an answer. I just… ended up as one."

"Well, that's probably what happens to most people," Tenten said, and Sakura blinked, her internal condemnation drying up under Tenten's frankness. "It's a hidden village, after all. If you don't know what to do, you become a ninja. Both your parents are, right?"

Sakura nodded, and Tenten smiled. "You looked worried. Relax. If you grew up with two ninja as your only example, what else could you have done? Everyone ends up where they are because of who's around them, not because they're born with a purpose or something. Have you been worried about that this whole time?"

"A little," Sakura admitted, suddenly feeling silly.

"Ah, it's alright," Tenten said, smacking her shoulder. She did that a lot. The older girl was more physical than anyone else Sakura had met. "You're figuring it out now, right? That's all you can do sometimes."

Sakura, at that moment, felt a deep and abiding appreciation for the older girl.

"Thanks," she said haltingly. "Tenten… we're friends, right?"

Tenten gave her a puzzled look. "We've been hanging out for a month and clashing swords almost every day. Did you think we _weren't_ friends?"

"Sorry," Sakura said, mortified. "I just-"

"Forget it." Tenten smiled. "Grab another sword. We still have some sunlight." She drew her own weapon, a short glaive, and paced back from Sakura, putting about twenty feet between them. "This time, _you're_ getting disarmed. I guarantee it."

Grateful and more than a little relieved, Sakura reached for the scroll, drew a chokuto out, and leapt back into a ready position as the sun continued to set behind her.

###

When the last of the leaves fell, over a hundred days after their first C-Rank, Naruto finished the Rasengan.

"Sakura!"

Sakura jerked and looked to her left, out her bedroom window. She found Naruto there, staring at her with an enormous grin plastered on his face. Only her teammate's head was visible, peaking around the side of the windowsill: he was standing on the side of her apartment.

"Naruto?" She set down the book she'd been reading on her bed, standing up and walking over to the window. She'd left it open to enjoy some of the cool winter air; Konoha didn't get very cold, even in December, though it had snowed once in her memory. "What are you doing?"

"I figured it out!" he declared proudly, and Sakura heard someone start to climb the stairs to her room below; her mother was the only one home right now, so it was certainly her. "I got it!"

"Got what?" she asked. "You don't mean-"

"The Rasengan!"

Sakura was taken aback. It had only been ten days before that Naruto had managed to burst the rubber ball with his chakra, and move onto what he had been told was the final step. He'd been given an empty balloon, and told to form his chakra within it without popping it; the complete reversal of the previous exercises. Had he really figured it out that quickly?

"Congratulations!" she said after a moment of hesitation, and Naruto's smile grew wider.

"C'mon," he said, and the footsteps reached the top of the stairs. "I'm gonna grab Sasuke, and show my dad: do you wanna come with?"

She blinked.

Naruto had come to her first, instead of his parents or Sasuke? Why? She must have just been closest, Sakura thought. That's what made the most sense.

"Sakura?" Her mother pushed open the door behind her, and Sakura half-turned, looking over her shoulder. "Everything alright-" She spotted Naruto over her shoulder.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Naruto, what are you doing out there?"

The blond looked sheepish. "It was the quickest way up," he said, and Sakura's mother laughed.

"Well, don't scuff the wall, alright? You'll be the one paying for it!" She was wearing a nice necklace, Sakura noticed; one of the things she'd bought with the bounty money from Hidan. Sakura had never really understood jewelry, but she had to admit the necklace with its silver chain and sapphire stone was really quite pretty. "What'd you come for?"

Sakura's family had only met Naruto a couple times, but they'd always hit it off; her teammate was infectious in his enthusiasm and good cheer, and the fact he was the Hokage's son probably helped. Naruto just shrugged in response to Mebuki's question.

"Just wanted to show Sakura something," he said. "I've got a new jutsu!"

"Well, that certainly sounds interesting," Sakura's mother said, glancing at her and wiggling her eyebrows. Sakura stared back without comprehension, and her mother laughed. "Go on then. Just close the window behind you, would you?"

Her mother closed the door, and when Sakura hopped out the window, sticking herself to the wall alongside Naruto, she gently closed the window.

They made their way to the Uchiha Compound, chattering about trivialities along the way. Konoha in the winter was always an interesting sight: the multitude of forests that peppered the village were bereft of their leaves, robbing their home of much of its color and vitality, and thick clouds frequently hung low over the village. Its citizens countered the gloominess by hanging more colorful tapestries in the streets and planting vibrant winter fruits and trees on the rooftops, but there was still more grey than green. The only exception were the grand trees planted by the First Hokage, dozens of meters tall and furnished with leaves throughout the year. No matter the weather or circumstances, the founding trees of Konoha would never wither.

Sakura had always wondered why the Uchiha's home was on the outskirts of the village, well away from any other residential districts. They'd been one of the founding clans, but they were more isolated than any of them. Had that been their decision, or someone else's?

The compound had a couple different entrances, but the largest was the southward facing, and that was the one Naruto and Sakura approached from. There was a young boy sitting outside it, maybe four or five years old, whittling something into a tree, and he watched them enter with a solemn expression. The Uchiha built differently from the rest of Konoha; they had wide, cobbled streets, and their homes were more concrete than wood.

Naruto seemed to know the way, and so Sakura followed him; she'd never seen Sasuke's home before. They passed several Uchiha, all of whom glanced at them, but no stopped to speak with them. In a little more than a minute, they came to a squat and wide house, only one story tall but still larger than Sakura's own home. Naruto knocked on the door, and then let himself inside.

"Sasuke?" he called, and in response a woman stuck her head through a doorframe at the end of the hall. Sakura had only met Mikoto Uchiha twice in all her time with her team, and just like last time, she couldn't take her eyes off the burns on the woman's otherwise beautiful face.

"Naruto?" the woman asked. "He's out back." She shifted her gaze to Sakura, her scars crinkling. "Hello, Sakura. What's this about?"

"Naruto figured out the Rasengan," Sakura said self-consciously, and Mikoto clicked her tongue in surprise. "He wanted Sasuke to be there when he shows his father."

"Well, who can blame him? That's quite the achievement." Mikoto gestured over her shoulder. "Out back, like I said. Congratulations, Naruto."

"Thanks!" Naruto bolted past her, while Sakura did her best to give Sasuke's mother a respectable distance as she made her way down the hallway. Mikoto watched her go as she did, and Sakura slowed, wondering if she'd done something wrong.

"Obito tells me your kenjutsu has improved," Mikoto said, and Sakura blinked, turning to look at the woman directly. She was watching Sakura with something she couldn't identify. "I'm a swordswoman myself. We should meet sometime."

"I…" Sakura felt a gear in her head catch. There was a cold sweat on the back of her neck. Mikoto's gaze, even without her Sharingan active, was intense. "Pardon me, ma'am?"

"Naruto and Sasuke already know this," Sasuke's mother said with a frown. "But you are on a team, more than any other, that may have to face a Sharingan one day. It would benefit you to learn how to fight it."

"I don't understand," Sakura admitted. Mikoto shook her head, the intensity vanishing.

"Don't worry about it, for now," she said with a faint smile. "Just consider my offer, if you would."

"Of course," Sakura said, trying to understand what had just happened. "Of course I will. I promise."

Mikoto shooed her away with a grin, and Sakura left, stepping into the backyard to find Sasuke and Naruto waiting for her. Her Uchiha teammate had worked up a sweat; there was a tree covered in small burns and ninja tools behind him.

"What happened?" Naruto asked, and Sakura shook her head.

"Nothing," she said, wondering if that was true. "Sorry I took a second."

"Alright," Sasuke said. "Let's go then." He grinned at Naruto. "I'd like to see this jutsu, if you've really figured it out."

They left the compound together, making their way to the Hokage's office. It was one of the tallest and most central buildings in Konoha, visible from any rooftop in the village, and Sakura had never been inside before. They made their way through one of the side doors, Naruto nodding at a watching chunin, and climbed a twisting staircase that ran through the whole building. Seven floors up, and they came to a hall, and Naruto confidently stepped down it, quietly whistling a tune to himself.

There was an ANBU outside the office, guarding the heavy double doors, and he watched them approach with a mask marked with a minimalistic hawk. When Naruto reached for the door, he shook his head.

"Meeting," he said, and Naruto frowned. "Give him a minute, kid."

Naruto stuck his tongue out, to Sakura's shock. "It'll only _be_ a minute," he said, and the ANBU shifted. Sakura couldn't believe that her teammate was willing to talk back to a senior ninja like that; even if he was the Hokage's son, that was rude, right? She glanced at Sasuke: he wasn't showing an emotion of any kind. It was impossible to know if he felt the same way.

But the ANBU made no move to stop them when Naruto pushed the door open, so Sakura didn't say anything.

"Sensei's old students are always causing trouble," the Hokage said as they entered, looking up from his desk as they entered. There were five other people in the room with him.

Sakura only recognized two of them. The Third Hokage, who had retired before she was born but was still a man with a very imposing presence, and Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mother. The other three were a man and a woman with grey hair and severe expressions, and another middle-aged man with spiky black hair and deep frown lines. Two scars ran from above and below his left eye to the side of his face, ending near his ears: of all the adults in the room, he was the one who watched them with the most intensity.

The Hokage made eye contact with his son, and Sakura felt a flash of guilt. They shouldn't be here right now; they'd intruded on something important. All the adults in the room were looking at them now, all curiously, some with confusion, and the Hokage finished his thought as he pinned his son with his brilliant blue eyes.

"Until they cause an actual issue, we're inviting them," he declared, and the room relaxed. "We'll revisit the issue in May." He straightened up. "Naruto. Something wrong?"

"Who let you in?" Kushina demanded, and Naruto shrugged. "We've talked about this before, Naruto! You can't just walk into your father's office whenever you want!"

"Hawk let me in," Naruto said with a grin. How could he be so confident, with his family, a previous Kage, and other important shinobi staring at him? Sakura really couldn't understand him sometimes. "I got it!"

"You got it?" the Hokage asked, and his son nodded. He smiled faintly; Sakura couldn't remember ever seeing the Hokage smile before. The few times she'd seen him, he'd always been so serious and solemn, but he had a smile like Naruto's, one that was bright and guileless. "Well, it took longer than Obito thought it would, but that's still good to hear. Let's see it then."

Naruto stepped forward, and Sakura and Sasuke stayed back, watching him. He set himself in a concentrated stance, his feet widely planted and his posture completely upright, and held one hand out before him, the other settling into a claw over it.

As Sakura watched intently, he started channeling chakra to his hand. A lot; enough for it to be visible, a faint blue glow growing in his hand. The glow grew, becoming a small sphere of violently rotating chakra. It wobbled, seemingly about to come apart, and Naruto's other hand came down, helping spin the chakra and directing it with small, quick motions, keeping its form.

Just several seconds later, he drew his hand back with a prideful grin. There, sitting and keening in his hand, was a small ball of bright, dangerous chakra, spinning in place. Just looking at it, Sakura could tell that it was dangerous; she had no idea what would happen if it hit something, but that much chakra spinning so rapidly it almost looked like it wasn't moving would probably blow a hole through a stone wall with ease.

Naruto held the jutsu in his hand for ten seconds, luxuriating in the attention being paid to him, and then closed his fingers. The Rasengan vanished, and the sound and light with it.

The Hokage smiled. "Nicely done." Across from him, the Third Hokage grinned.

"Very good, Naruto," the older man said, and Sakura's teammate beamed. The Third had a comforting voice: he'd occasionally spoken at the Academy, and Sakura had always been compelled to listen. In a way, he was a grandfather to the entire village. "To acquire an A-Rank jutsu at your age is no easy task." He glanced at both Sasuke and Sakura. "I hope you intend to share it."

"He better," Kushina huffed, before she smiled. "Good job! Now get out of here, before I throw you out!"

"Got it!" Naruto gave her a thumbs up and beat a hasty retreat, and Sakura and Sasuke followed, not saying a word. They passed Hawk in the corridor, and the ninja inclined his head. Naruto held his hand out for a high-five, and the ANBU stared at him, leaving him hanging. Sakura's teammate just laughed.

"Yeah, that's fair," he said, and they made their way down the corridor, away from the office.

"That's an interesting technique," Sasuke said when they were nearly to the staircase. Sakura realized his Sharingan was winding away. "It's nothing but chakra control, huh?"

"Pretty much," Naruto said. "That's what all the lessons were about; putting out enough to pop the ball, but then controlling it enough that it wouldn't damage anything." He scratched his cheek, and Sakura's eyes were drawn to the whisker-like scars there. So far as she could tell, her teammate had been born with them: she'd never asked where they'd come from. "I guess if I put out too much but didn't control it, it would tear up my hand or something. That'd be nasty."

"It's pretty amazing, Naruto," Sakura agreed. She frowned. "I wondered what they were talking about."

"Whadya mean?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke nodded slowly.

"You didn't hear?" he asked, and Naruto made a helpless gesture that made Sakura laugh. "Your father said something about 'Sensei's old students.' Do you have any idea what that meant?"

"Nah," Naruto said, putting his hands behind his head in a gesture of an extravagant lack of care. "No clue. I'll ask him about it if you want me to."

"... could you?" Sakura asked, and Naruto glanced at her with a curious expression. "I didn't know the Fourth had any teammates. It would be interesting to learn about them."

Naruto made a surprised face, and Sakura realized he hadn't been looking at it that way. "Yeah," he said. "That could be interesting. I'll see about that when he's not in a meeting." He grinned. "And grumpy."

He turned, taking the first step down the staircase. "So, do you guys want ice cream or something? I could use a snack."

That, Sakura thought, sounded pretty nice. She and Sasuke followed him out into the cool winter air, and by the time they reached the end of the street, immersed in conversation and speculation about the Rasengan, Sakura had forgotten all about her question.


	12. The Wider World

The Chunin Exam

Obito leaned back in his chair, watching his teammate closely. Rin quirked her head, a faint smile on her lips. He'd always liked that expression, but right now he couldn't enjoy it like normal: something in his gut was churning

"The Chunin Exam, huh?" he said, and Rin rolled her eyes.

"It's every six months," she said. "Well, usually. You can't really be surprised."

Obito leaned forward, picking up his water. Rin had barged into his apartment and helped herself to his fridge, and now they were seated in his living room. When was the last time they'd been here together, he wondered? Months ago, maybe a year. Why was that?

"I'm not surprised it's here," Obito clarified. "I'm surprised you think my team's ready."

"They've already been on an S-ish ranked mission," Rin said with a laugh. "I've been watching you guys, you know." Obito almost choked on his water. Rin had been watching them? What exactly did she mean by that? "Naruto's already figured out the Rasengan, and Sasuke's well on his way, in addition to all his other Uchiha stuff. And Sakura's been working so hard on her kenjutsu; she's smart, and putting in her all." She took a sip of her beer. "If they won't be ready now, when will they be?" She tapped her forehead. "Sensei's always saying the only thing you're missing is confidence, Obito, and he's right. When you were a kid…"

"I was a kid." Obito was quiet, a little solemn. "I didn't understand what the world was like."

They both fell into a short silence. Invisible, choking dust filled the room, a long-gone gasp for air, a dull thud.

"It's going to be the safest exam in years," Rin said eventually. "Maybe ever. Sensei doesn't want anything going wrong at this one." She leaned back, looking out the window. "Cloud's still working on their weird chakra weapons, so they're not invited. I think they're the only one that's not, actually. That's how it is. It's all part of the game. " She glanced back at Obito. "They're not going to be in real danger."

"I know." Obito frowned. "I get it. I just…"

"I know," Rin said. "It's your decision to enter them in the end. I don't wanna push you into it. But it'd be good for them." She set her beer down, and stood up. "And for you."

"Where you headed?" Obito asked, and Rin smiled.

"Back to the hospital," she said. "Even if this is gonna be safe, it's still an Exam, you know? Surprising things happen all the time." She winked. "See you around."

She walked out the front door as if it were hers and not his, and Obito watched her go. He looked back to the beer she'd left.

"Ahh," he groaned, and leaned forward to toss the can in the trash.

' _What's the worst that could happen?'_

_###_

"The Chunin Exam?"

Sakura looked over, carefully sheathing her sword at her hip. Both the blade and the sheath had been a gift from Tenten, though Sakura had bought them with her own money: her training partner had helped her pick out something that fit her and was comfortable to wear.

It made her feel more real, like a proper ninja, to carry around a sword at her hip. She wasn't sure if that was immature or not, but Sakura enjoyed the feeling anyway.

Sasuke had asked the question, looking at a piece of paper that Obito had offered him. Naruto was beside him, scratching his head and picking burned hairs off of it; the both of them had been sparring as Sakura slid through her kata, flowing from one sword strike to another, and Sasuke had ended up catching some of Naruto's blond hair on fire with a small jutsu.

"Do you think we're ready, Obito… sensei?" Naruto asked, and Obito smirked at the quick correction.

"I'm not sure," he said, and Sakura walked over to join them, staring at the paper curiously. It was a sign-up form, she realized, for the next Chunin Exam. Were they that close already? She knew they were a regular thing, but for some reason hadn't even thought they were coming up so soon. The paper said January 1st, only a week and some away.

"But like with a lot of things about being a shinobi, there's only one way to find out." He looked around at them, his gaze lingering on Sakura. To her surprise, she didn't flinch back. After six months on the team, she could meet Obito's gaze without fear.

' _You're stronger. You're figuring out what being a ninja means.'_

How much of that voice was really her, she wondered? It always felt too ambitious, a little too resentful. She wasn't like that, was she? Sakura wasn't ambitious and didn't resent people. At least, she didn't think so.

But Sakura couldn't deny herself; she was stronger. The fact she could look her sensei in the eyes without feeling like she didn't belong was proof of that.

"You guys will be the ones entering," their sensei continued. "The decision's yours, even if I'm the one who turns the paper in." He crossed his arms. "So, what do you think?"

Sakura was sure that both her teammates would jump on the opportunity immediately and drag her into it. That was usually how it went, in her experience. But to her surprise, Naruto frowned and sat down, some of his hair still sizzling.

"I dunno," he said after a moment, and Sakura stared at him.

"Naruto, what do you mean?" she asked, and her teammate looked up at her in confusion. "I thought… you don't want to be a chunin?" Naruto was the ambitious one: Naruto was the one who had figured out the Rasengan in just a couple months.

"I do!" Naruto said. "I definitely do! But…"

"Ohhh," Sasuke said quietly. "You idiot. You don't wanna try unless you're gonna pass?"

"Hey!" Naruto shot to his feet. "There's nothing stupid about that!"

"Is that true, Naruto?" Obito asked, and Naruto shifted.

"Sorta. Sasuke's a dumbass, so he's not saying it right." Sasuke smirked, and Naruto sneered at him, Sakura watching the back and forth with amusement. "It's like, the Chunin Exam is a pretty big deal. I don't wanna be one of those guys who takes it like ten times, you know?" He looked around at his teammates. "If we're gonna do it, I wanna do it right, the first time."

"It's a good idea," Sasuke said with a small frown. "Even if we don't pass, it's one of the best opportunities to meet ninja from other villages." He looked to their sensei. "And you know that, right? That's why you brought this to us at all. It's our best chance to get stronger, and learn more."

Sasuke sighed. "But I get it. Honestly, I don't wanna fail either."

Obito frowned. "You can't let that hold you back. You'll fail sometimes, all of you," he said, and Sakura thought he sounded a little sad about that truth. "That's life. If you avoid failure, you'll never improve."

They pondered that for a second, and then Sakura stepped forward.

"Sensei." She wasn't really sure what she was going to say. "I think…"

What did she think? They were looking at her now. What if she didn't have anything to say?

"I think that first C-Rank… taught us all something," she finally decided, and both her teammates watched her with careful eyes. She was just stating the obvious, and they were wondering why. "I think, all of us, we didn't really know that being a ninja would be like… that."

Blood in her hair. It was hot. Sakura shoved the memory back down where it had come from.

"The world's big," she said. "And if you mess up, you'll die." She took a deep breath. "But the Chunin Exam's not like that, right? It's in the village."

"You're mostly right," Obito nodded. "This one is taking place here, in Konoha, and most of the villages there are minor or allies. Sand, Grass, River, Tea, Rain-"

"Rain?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "I thought… I didn't think Rain was either of those."

His eyes went wide. "Oh, shit!" He spun around. "Sakura, I forgot!"

Obito cuffed him on the back of the head for his profanity, and Naruto shot him a glare before looking back at her. "I forgot about your question!"

"My question?" Sakura asked, and Naruto spread his arms wide.

"Yeah! About my dad's teammates!"

Sakura blinked. Right! That had been weeks ago, the short snippet of conversation she'd heard in the Hokage's office. She'd completely forgotten about it afterwards: it had only been a passing interest.

"Your dad's teammates?" Obito asked with a questioning look. "None of them are around anymore." He frowned. "They're all…"

"Not…" Naruto waved him off. "Not his original team. I asked him about it; he wasn't talking about them, he was talking about some of his master's _other_ students."

Obito's eyes went a little wide. "Oh, _them_."

"Them?" Sasuke and Sakura asked at the same time, and they looked at each other with amusement. Sasuke made a deferential gesture, and Sakura giggled. "Them?" she asked again, alone this time.

"Them," Obito confirmed dramatically, and Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Sensei was trained by the Toad Sage, Jiraiya. I trained with him as well, for a little while. Jiraiya-sensei had other students as well, a couple over the course of his life." He crossed his arms and sat down, and his students followed him. Their sensei was being really serious, Sakura thought. The feeling was in the air, like an invisible weight: he was telling them something important.

"There were three in particular, that he picked up in the Land of Rain during the Second War. That was where the Sannin got their name, you know: they fought the leader of Amegakure, Hanzo the Salamander, and they walked away," he said, and Naruto cocked his head.

"They didn't win?" he asked, and Obito laughed.

"Hanzo was an incredible shinobi," he explained. They were all leaning in now. This wasn't as scary as it should have been, Sakura thought. They'd already seen what the world had to offer. Right now, she was just consumed by curiosity. "Flee on sight, just like your dad. He could poison whole battlefields in an instant, and controlled exploding tags like they were alive. The way people told me when I was a kid, you didn't fight Hanzo, you started suffocating and then suddenly exploded."

He shrugged. "But the Sannin managed to stalemate him, and so he declared that they were worthy of being recognized and spread their name to all of the countries across the world. I guess he was kinda a megalomaniac, when I put it that way."

Sasuke chuckled. "It sounds that way," he said. "Maybe he wanted them to be famous so it wouldn't be bad for his reputation, not being able to kill them."

"Maybe!" Obito laughed. "Maybe. But I got sidetracked. The point is, Jiraiya-sensei picked up three orphans in Ame, and stayed behind to train them when the war was winding down. He was famous enough at that point to do that; so long as he stayed loyal, the village didn't care what he did with his time in a neutral country."

Their sensei frowned. "He told me once he thought they had potential; never figured out what he meant by that. But he was definitely right in a way, because those three kids grew up into pretty spectacular shinobi."

"They must have been!" Naruto cut in. "They took over the country!"

"Hey!" Obito said, and Naruto smirked at him. "I thought I was telling the story!"

"You're going too slow!" Naruto declared, and Obito fumed.

"I'm building it up!" he said, and Sakura couldn't help but laugh. "You've got no appreciation for that, Naruto! You can't just jump straight to the end!"

"Well, that's the important part, right?" Naruto asked. "Those three, Konan, Yahiko, and, uh…"

"Nagato," Obito grunted, and Naruto nodded his head sagely. "Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato. Do you know _how_ they overthrew the country?"

The blond shrugged, and Obito shook his head in despair. Sakura, however, was wondering about something else.

"Naruto, you meant the _village_ , right?" she asked, and her teammate gave her a confused look. "Not the country."

"No, he's right," their sensei said. "Though probably by accident." Naruto huffed, and Sakura leaned back, putting both her hands on the ground.

"They took over the entire country? All of the Land of Rain?" she asked, and Obito nodded. "What about… what happened to the government? The Daimyo?"

"Imprisoned," Obito said, and both Sakura and her teammates had to take a moment to consider that. You couldn't just… imprison the Daimyo. The villages worked together with their country's governments: they didn't have the manpower or means to actually govern the countries themselves, and no desire to take up that burden. Doing otherwise was…

"So that's the trouble they're making then," Sakura said, and Obito shrugged.

"That was a long time ago," he said "The Village Hidden in the Rain became the Nation of Rain over ten years ago… though everyone still just treats them like a village. It's an unusual situation, after all."

"Wow," Sakura said, not really sure what else to say.

Naruto frowned. "I wasn't asking the right questions," he muttered to himself. "Is that why I've never met dad's master?" he asked. "Cause of this?"

"Perceptive," Obito said, tapping his temple. "Yeah. Jiraiya-sensei isn't exactly an outcast, but because of those orphans he decided to train, another village is rising. Rain has even started calling their leader, Yahiko, the Amekage." He rested his head in one hand. Sakura had never heard this before: to her knowledge, only the five largest villages had leaders who declared themselves Kage. Minor ones like Grass, or what Rain was supposed to be, wouldn't claim that title: it would be way too presumptuous. "He couldn't have known, but people still blame him. That's just how it is, I guess."

"That's not fair," Sasuke said with a frown, and Obito pinned him with a glance.

"Things often aren't," he said, and Sakura could only watch helplessly as something passed unspoken between them.

"So, that's the answer to your question, Sakura," their sensei continued. "You were saying something else, before Naruto interrupted, weren't you?"

Naruto protested, and Sakura tried to remember where she'd been.

"I think we should sign up," she said after a moment. "That's where I was going with that. If we pass, that'll be amazing, and if we fail, we'll know how not to next time." She looked at both her teammates. "It can't be any worse than our C-Rank, right? I understand not wanting to do it more than once, but there's no real harm. I think we should go for it."

She'd always been prepared to fail, Sakura thought. In that respect, the Exam held no fear for her.

Naruto gave her a doubting look, but Sasuke spoke before he could.

"She's right," he said, looking at Obito. "Where do I sign?"

Naruto looked back and forth between the two of them, and sighed. "Alright," he said good-naturedly. "But if we're gonna do this, we're gonna win, right?"

"Without a doubt," Sasuke said, his conviction almost tangible, and Sakura found herself agreeing with him, to her surprise.

"I think we can," she said. "It's not a hundred percent, but I think we're ready, Naruto. We can do it."

"Together," Obito said. He passed the paper to Sasuke and pointed out a signature line, and pulled a pen from one of his pockets. He kept speaking as Sasuke scribbled down his consent. "If I know sensei at all, the Exam will be a test of teamwork more than anything else. If you guys can't work together, there's no way we'll pass."

"Well, that shouldn't be a problem then." Naruto grinned. "We just stick together, we pass, we become chunin, then, uh…" He scratched his head. "What do we do when we're chunin, Obito-sensei?"

"Well, you'll still be my team," Obito said. "You've gotta be under supervision at least a year, _usually_ , before you can start taking missions on your own. That's barring circumstances, obviously. But you'll get some prestige, and make a little more money."

"Cool," Naruto said. "That sounds cool. I'm in."

They all signed the form. Sakura tried not to read the bits about not being held liable for dismemberment or death too closely. When they were done, Obito packed it into his back pocket and stood back up.

"I'll turn this in," he said. "As for you guys, if you're serious about passing, we should get training. The Chunin Exam attracts the best of the best, genin wise. It's a chance for all their villages to strut their stuff." He winked. "So show off, would you?"

###

Two days before the exam, foreign shinobi started entering the village.

Sakura and her teammates had been training together with Might Gai's team: Tenten and her teammates were determined to take the exam as well, and Gai was equally determined to punch Obito in the face at least once. Though it hadn't been why she was there, Sakura had been having enormous fun sparring with Tenten and then taking breaks to watch Obito dance around Gai. Sasuke and Neji had competed as well, but Neji had trounced Sasuke without much effort, leaving him on the ground with a bruised solar plexus. Sakura had expected that to discourage Sasuke, but it had been just the opposite. Since Neji had beaten him, he'd relentlessly challenged the older boy, apparently desperate to defeat it.

The Gentle Fist, the Hyuuga martial art, was beautiful to watch, Sakura thought. Even if Neji was using it to relentlessly beat her teammates up, the flowing motions and complete lack of wasted movements that the martial art incorporated were amazing. She wondered if it would have any use for her sword. At one point Naruto had stepped in as well, and Neji had been happy to fight him and Sasuke at the same time. The result had been the same: the both of them on the ground, groaning and gasping for air.

Sakura had never realized how glad she would be for Neji not to have any interest in defeating her, before that. Tenten had laughed when she'd told her.

"He's like that," she'd said, as if it were inescapable as gravity. Sakura's hair was pink, the sun rose and set, and Neji beat anyone who challenged him into a semi-liquid paste, regardless of who they were.

They were heading back to the center of the village, all eight of them, when they met their first foreign ninja.

He wasn't much to look at. The foreigner was a tall boy with pale hair and purple eyes; they nearly bumped into each other at a busy intersection filled with people heading every which way, and he looked down at Sakura, and then at all of the other ninja with her, taking in their hitai-ate. Sakura couldn't help but notice his own; it was attached to his hip, apparently woven into his long black pants, and it had three straight lines drawn vertically down it. She didn't recognize the symbol.

"Heyyy," the shinobi said. Sakura's teammates crossed their arms: both of the adults gave the boy a blank look. "I'm kinda lost. You know where I can get a drink around here?"

Obito raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. "A shinobi should be able to locate food on their own," he said dryly, and the boy grinned. His teeth were sharp and triangular, like a shark. Sakura had never seen teeth like that before in her life. She wondered if the boy had ever accidentally bitten his lip, or tongue.

"Rude," he said. "I didn't realize Konoha's shinobi were so inhospitable to guests." He fished beneath his shirt and withdrew a lanyard with a card on it. A visitation pass, Sakura saw after he stopped waving it around. It was a simple thing, something you could get at the gate if you were entering the village with a stranger; she'd only seen it once before. If this ninja was here for the Chunin Exams, which he almost certainly was, it made perfect sense for him to have one.

"Ah!" Lee stepped forward, all smiles. "You must be here to compete!" He gestured around. "There are many spectacular restaurants and shops in the village: perhaps one of them holds what you seek!"

The boy looked Lee up and down with an obvious expression of disbelief. "Jeez," he muttered. "Nevermind. I'm just gonna find something myself."

"Don't make any trouble," Neji said placidly as the shinobi stepped past them, and the boy sneered. "We'll be watching."

"Sure you will," the foreigner jeered. "Don't worry. I'm saving all my trouble for the Exam." Then he strode down the street, and was gone in the press of people before Sakura knew it.

"What a blowhard," Sasuke muttered.

"He was from the Nation of Rain," Gai said, watching the shinobi go with keen eyes. "I doubt he's truly lost." He glanced at Obito. "Do you reckon they are all such troublemakers?"

"He wasn't making any trouble," Obito said with a shrug. "Just wandering. I'm sure it's fine." He tilted his head up slightly. "And anyway, it looks like he's being watched."

He was right, Sakura realized. She only caught a flicker of movement from one rooftop to another, over a nearby alleyway, but it was enough to tell her that a shinobi had just repositioned, moving after the boy with shark teeth. Her sensei wasn't worried, and so she wasn't either, but it did make her curious. What about that ninja merited being monitored? Was the village keeping tabs on every foreigner who entered?

Well, it wasn't any of her business, in the end.

"C'mon," Obito said. "He had one idea right. We should get something to eat."

Team Seven said their goodbyes to Gai and his team and made their way down the street, into the depths of the village, and were soon lost in the mazes of buildings and masses of people.

###

The day of the Exam, Sakura arrived at the academy, where the first stage was being held. When she arrived, she wasn't surprised to find Sasuke and Obito there as well. Naruto was late, as usual.

"Morning." She was a little subdued in her greeting, and they gave her a nod in return. There were butterflies in her stomach. Signing up for the exam had been one thing; it actually being here was another. Had she been thinking straight? They'd only been genin for six months: all of the other competitors would have at least a year on them, surely.

Actually…

"Sensei," she asked as they waited in silence outside the gates of the Academy. "Did any other teams beside Tenten's enter the Exam? I never asked before."

"Hmmm, a couple," he said, scratching his chin. "I know that other than Gai, both Asuma and Kurenai have put their teams in the mix." He noticed her look of confusion. "That's Eight and Ten."

Eight: Hinata, Shino, and Kiba, and Ten: Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji. Sakura felt herself relax a little. They weren't going in alone. They wouldn't be the only new graduates there. At least they wouldn't look like overconfident idiots… or at least look like that alone.

"Hey!" Naruto ran up out of breath, and completely severed Sakura's train of thought. "Sorry, sorry! My dad made a big breakfast!"

"The… Hokage?" Sakura asked, and Naruto nodded.

"He's a really good cook!" he said with a grin. "Mom…" He wobbled his hand. "Not so much. Did I miss anything?"

"Not really, Naruto," their sensei said. "We were just standing here, staring at the door, waiting for you."

"Ahh, that was nice of you," Naruto said, either not detecting or not willing to acknowledge Obito's tone. "We heading in then?"

"Soon as I give you a little advice," Obito said, turning to regard them all. "Stick together. Don't treat this like the end of the world. It's just a test. Do your best, and we'll all be proud of you."

"Thank you for the wisdom," Sasuke said rather dryly, and Sakura giggled. Her fingers were drumming on the hilt of her sword, she realized. She was definitely nervous, but she couldn't deny there was an eagerness there as well. She wanted to get started. "Anything solid?"

"Nah." Obito shrugged. "You'll be fine. Good luck."

Without preamble or another parting word he vanished in a swirl of space and time, and left Team Seven alone in front of the Academy.

"Well…" Sakura said. "Should we head in?"

"Let's," Sasuke confirmed, and he took the lead, striding ahead towards the front door. He opened it without fear, and his teammates followed him. They were supposed to meet in room 302, the largest room in the building, and they took the familiar stairs as if it were any other days. There was a large congregation of shinobi on the second floor, arguing with two chunin; Sakura gave them a confused look as she passed them heading farther up the building, wondering what they were wasting time for.

She wondered if it was a trick; had they been given the wrong room? But when they reached the third floor and Sasuke stepped into 302, she became sure that wasn't the case.

The room was full of shinobi: well over a hundred, by Sakura's guess. 302 was the size of an auditorium and it had a high ceiling, so it didn't quite feel _cramped_ , but it was definitely approaching it. Looking around, Sakura saw hitai-ate from a dozen different villages, as well as quite a few Konoha headbands. She caught a glimpse of Tenten and her team across the room, and waved: Tenten gave a distracted wave back, engrossed in conversation with Neji.

"Ah!" The quiet exclamation came from to her left, and Sakura turned towards it. "Sasuke? And Naruto and Sakura? You're here too?" Hinata Hyuuga, looking small but not afraid, stepped past a press of shinobi debating the finer points of knife-work with a smile. "I'm glad."

"Of course they're here!" Kiba was right behind her, shoving his way through the group Hinata had skirted. He had a small dog resting on top of his head, and it barked at everyone who tried to push him back. "They'd look like a bunch of idiots if they weren't, wouldn't they?"

"That's not very nice, Kiba," Hinata frowned, and Sakura smiled.

"It's good to see you, Hinata," she said, and the Hyuuga smiled back. Her pale, empty eyes had scared Sakura a little when they'd first met, but after years of being classmates now she barely noticed them. "We heard Team Ten was here too: have you seen them?"

"They haven't arrived yet," Hinata said, fidgeting a little. Kiba laughed.

"Shikamaru must be holding them up. Or Choji." He nodded, one-hundred percent sure of his assessment. "They never were the fastest."

"What about Shino?" Naruto asked with a confused look. "Isn't he here with you?"

"I am." Naruto jumped, looking behind him. Shino had approached without a sound; none of them had noticed him approaching. "This promises to be an interesting exam. Why?" He gestured around. "Look at the number of villages: this must be unusual."

He was right, Sakura thought. There really were a lot of different villages here. Minor ones of every kind, including several she didn't recognize; she even caught a glimpse of a Stone hitai-ate, which surprised her. There were several different teams from Sunagakure as well, clustered in the corner.

They seemed to be keeping to themselves, more than anyone else. One of them, Sakura realized with a jolt, was staring at them as they chatted by the door. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the group, a large gourd strapped to his back.

The boy looked strange; like Hinata, he didn't have pupils, but his eyes weren't the milky white of the Bykugan. There were green, closer to teal, and their striking color was only accentuated by the thick bags beneath the shinobi's eyes and his lack of eyebrows. He had a red tattoo on his forehead as well, which only threw them further into contrast. He looked incredibly tired, Sakura thought, but he was still totally alert.

His eyes shifted, locking with her own, and Sakura realized he'd been looking to her right, to Naruto and Sasuke. They stared at each other for a moment, and Sakura felt rooted in place. She didn't know what was causing it, but the sensation of frozen time was eerily familiar.

It was just like it had been in the temple, she thought. That was it. When Hidan had leapt up on the wall and stared at them, ready to attack at the first sign of movement. That was what was happening. Sakura felt herself break into a cold sweat; her hand tightened around her sword.

Three, four, five seconds. Eventually, very deliberately, Sakura slowly dragged her gaze away, staring at the floor, and she felt the pressure fade.

"Sakura?" Hinata was the one who noticed; Naruto and Sasuke were busy arguing with Kiba about who would finish the Exam first, and Shino was watching the whole thing with his usual unreadable expression. "What's wrong?"

"That boy," she said quietly, and both teams hushed up at her tone. "He's staring at us."

"Hey!" Naruto demanded. "Who's staring at us?" He looked around. "That Sand creep?" He made a shooing motion, and to Sakura's horror, the boy with green eyes smiled. It wasn't an expression with any joy; he just showed his teeth, his cheeks wrinkling.

"Jeez," Sasuke said as the boy turned away and murmured something to a tall blonde girl besides him. "What a freak."

"He's not the only one," Hinata said timidly. "Watching, I mean. A couple teams have been watching you three since you arrived."

"Who?" Sasuke asked, and Hinata blushed, pointing discreetly around the room.

"That team, from Stone." She was right; two girls and one boy, all with pitch-black hair, all staring intently at Naruto. He stuck his tongue out at them and they turned away, whispering amongst themselves.

"And that team, from Amegakure." Hinata tilted her head, and Sakura followed the vector. To her surprise, she found she recognized one of the shinobi discreetly eyeing them.

"It's that boy," she said, and Sasuke nodded his head in agreement. "From the market."

The boy with shark teeth nodded at her, recognizing that she'd noticed his observation, and Sakura decided the only thing she could really do was nod back. Like everyone else in the room, he had two teammates with him. They were both seated at one of the many desks scattered throughout the room. One of them, an older boy with grey hair and large, round glasses, was peaceably chatting with a team from the Land of Rivers, gesturing widely and smiling guilelessly. He had a very friendly smile, Sakura thought, but it was impossible to know if it was genuine.

The other was a girl with sharp, beautiful features and warm brown eyes. Unlike her teammates, who had minimalistic brown clothes that didn't express much identity but were certainly warm and convenient, she wore a short haori over a pure white shirt and a long black skirt. Sakura had to admit the haori had an interesting and eye-catching design: it was dark black, but there were a series of asymmetrical red clouds woven into the material, covering the back and sleeves.

Like the boy from Sand, the girl from Rain caught Sakura's eye, but this time she didn't feel the need to run away. Instead, she smiled, and Sakura smiled back uncertainly.

"Wonder why they're watching us," Naruto said, his hands behind his head. Behind him, Team Ten slipped into the room, squabbling amongst themselves. Sakura waved at Ino, and the blonde girl gave her a dismissive one in turn as she continued to badger Shikamaru relentlessly.

"Uh, duh," Kiba smirked. He pointed at Naruto. "Hokage's son." Then to Sasuke. "Fancy Uchiha." Then last, to Sakura. "Pink hair," he finished, and Sakura resisted the urge to both roll her eyes and shrivel up a little. Was that all-

' _Eyes front.'_

Sakura turned in surprise at the words, just in time to watch over a dozen ninja materialize in a cloud of smoke at the front of the room. A moment later, she realized that she hadn't heard anything. The voice had rung through her head, but there hadn't been a sound accompanying it. In fact, she hadn't been the only one to turn: the whole room had at the same time, at the same not-sound.

The ninja were diverse: one of them was an Uchiha, two of them were Hyuuga, and all of the others were distinct, but the shinobi in front drew the most attention. He was a tall man with a strong, broad face, and had a golden ponytail that went down past his waist. He wore a flak jacket, and a red vest over it.

"Ah, crap," Ino muttered, coming up next to her. Sakura glanced back and forth between her classmate and the man at the front, and realized they had the same hair and similar eyes. They were definitely related.

"Good morning," the Yamanaka said, his voice deep and steady. It was the same voice Sakura and the rest of the room had heard in their head. "Since you all seem to be getting along so well, the Exam will now commence." He looked around the room, taking them all in instantly. "As I'm sure you're aware, there will be no fighting without permission from the proctors. You have already obeyed that admirably: I hope that will continue to be the case."

He began pacing, hands clasped behind his back and ponytail slightly swaying with the motion. "This exam will be divided into three distinct tests," he said, enunciating every word. His voice carried to the back of the room without effort. "I am Inoichi Yamanaka, and this first test will be under my purview." He came to a stop. "There are, throughout this and the neighboring building, thirty-four specially prepared rooms. It is not a coincidence that this is the same number of teams that are present here today."

They would each get their own room for the test? Sakura looked around, taking in the other ninja's reactions. Many were doing the same thing she was; some were telling jokes, and a few just stared ahead with a razor focus.

"Each of you will be sealed in one of those rooms," Inoichi said, and a murmur passed around the crowd. "You will be presented with an objective; accomplish it and depart the room, and you will pass the test." His eyes narrowed. "If you leave the room without accomplishing the objective, you will have abandoned the mission: you will be disqualified. If you fail to accomplish the objective, you will be disqualified." His eyes closed completely. "Do not think you'll be able to deceive me if you _cannot_ accomplish the objective, because-"

' _I. Will. Know.'_

Sakura heard the voice again, and she was sure that everyone else did too. The man was speaking directly to their minds; was it a bluff, or could he really read them that easily? She decided she didn't want to find out.

"Easy," Sasuke muttered, and Sakura looked over to find him practically trembling with anticipation. He was excited; much more excited than her. The same, she saw, was true for Naruto. Her team was raring to go.

"Now, you all understand what is required of you," Inoichi said, raising his hand. He snapped his fingers, and the shinobi behind him fanned out, a couple creating clones: the space descended into organized chaos as the various teams were gathered up and herded out of various doors, towards their assigned rooms.

"Thus, the first test shall begin."


	13. The Exam Begins

The First Test

' _Thirty minutes.'_

The door closed behind them, and then, to Sakura's astonishment, it vanished. What kind of trick was that?

Sasuke experimentally kicked at the spot where the door had once been, and Naruto flinched. "Hey!" he shouted, and his friend looked over his shoulder at him. "Careful! What if it was just an illusion? We'll get disqualified for busting out!"

"It's not an illusion." Sasuke's eyes were red. "It really did disappear."

"Huh." Naruto wandered up as well, and gave the wall a kick of his own. Sakura watched both her teammates, resisting the urge to laugh. "That's crazy. I wonder how-"

"Later," Sasuke said, moving back towards the center of the room. "Doesn't matter now. Sakura, what do we have?"

The room was small and drab, less than fifteen feet from wall to wall. The only piece of furniture was a desk in the center, upon which was a single piece of paper. There were no windows; the walls were covered in paper as well, embossed with kanji. They swirled across the entire room like a madman's scrawling, some even making their way onto the ceiling. Looking around at the sheer number of symbols, Sakura felt totally overwhelmed. On the wall opposite where the door had been, there was a small electronic keypad. Unlike everything else it was simple, just ten digits, not even an enter key.

"I don't know," she admitted to Sasuke. "Thirty minutes, I guess."

He gave her a lighthearted smirk and Sakura smiled back, a little proud of making her teammate laugh, even if it wasn't out loud. She picked up the paper on the desk, looking over it with a critical eye. At first glance, it was just more nonsense, a series of tightening concentric rings composed of both kanji and simple symbols. The spiral made Sakura a little dizzy, and she rotated the paper, following the chain of kanji.

At the center, there was something coherent, written out in circular katakana: 'access code.'

"I uh…" Naruto looked as dizzy as Sakura felt, twisting his head to try and follow the kanji. "I don't get it."

"It's a cipher?" Sakura ventured, and was relieved when Sasuke nodded in agreement. He frowned, his Sharingan slowly rotating as he regarded both the paper and the walls around them.

"It's a cipher," Sasuke confirmed. "But the actual code…" He spun, regarding the whole room. "All I can see initially is that it corresponds to the cardinal directions." Sakura blinked, looking at the paper and then at the room's four walls. He was right; specific combinations of numbers appeared on the north, south, east, and west walls, and they matched patterns on the four corners of the paper.

But… where did it lead from there? What was the relationship of the kanji to the points of the compass? They needed a code for the keypad; how long would it be?

"Naruto," she asked as she and Sasuke continued to intensely glare at the paper. "Can you go press a number on the keypad?"

"Which one?" he asked, scratching the back of his head, and Sakura blew out a frustrated breath.

"Any one," she said, and Naruto shrugged and wandered over to the keypad to do just that. He pressed one of the keys, and the top of the pad lit up with a dim, fluorescent '7.'

"How many does it look like it would fit?" she asked, and Naruto squinted at the small electronic number.

"Uhh… five, I think," he said after a moment, and Sasuke looked over as well. The seven faded a couple seconds later, leaving the pad blank once more.

"Five," he agreed, and Sakura bit her lip. Four directions, each with a dedicated combination of kanji, but five numbers for the code in total. The mission was obvious; they needed to decipher the ridiculous access code and use it to get them out of the room. And now they only had about twenty-eight minutes to do it.

"Okay," she sighed. "Let's figure this out."

###

Obito Uchiha sat down on the wooden bench and groaned, leaning back with his hands coming up behind his head and his legs stretching out before him. He rotated his neck, trying to work a kink out; he'd been way too tense all morning.

Safest exam in years, Rin had said. He believed her, but seeing how many ninja had shown up had sparked a bit of sharp concern in the back of his head. It was an unusually large exam this year, with some exceptional entrants. No matter how well proctored it was, there was plenty of room for things to go wrong.

"Hey, Obito."

Obito looked left. Asuma Sarutobi, as ever, had a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Beside him, Kurenai Yuhi gave a non-committal wave, and Obito lazily waved back at the both of them. The halls of the academy were bustling, but everyone who passed stepped around the two of them without complaint

"Asuma." His fellow teacher sat down at his side, and Kurenai at the other side of him. Obito continued to try and work out his neck. "You're sticking around too?"

"It's only going to be another ten minutes or so," Asuma said, scratching at his stubble. "Be stupid not to, I'd say."

"Heh." Obito leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and stretching out his back. "I guess so."

"You alright there?" Kurenai asked with an amused lilt, and Obito snorted.

"Just a little tense," he said, and Kurenai let out a short laugh. She was always composed, and her laugh reflected that, Obito thought. She never let it get away from her. He could see the appeal; it wasn't any wonder she and Asuma had been going steady for over a year now.

"No need to be," she said, crossing her arms and legs and watching two bickering chunin pass. "Surely, your team will be fine."

"Yeah, they'll be fine." Obito straightened up. "It's the others I'm worried about."

"Oh?" Asuma looked over with a cocked eye, and Obito blinked.

"Shit, that came out wrong," he muttered. "I didn't mean-"

Asuma laughed. "I know what you mean," he said, taking a drag from his cigarette and holding it down between his legs in two fingers. The smoke from it wandered up, caressing his face. "I've been thinking the same thing."

"And me," Kurenai added in. "It's an interesting exam this year."

"How have your teams been doing?" Obito asked. "I've been self-absorbed as ever. I haven't really been keeping up." Another one of his bad habits.

"Good," Asuma said, twirling the cigarette around his fingers and leaving a complex smoke figure in its wake. Obito snorted; that was a neat trick. He must have been shaping it with his chakra. He was almost tempted to take a glance with his Sharingan. "It's the Ino-Shika-Cho, but the kids have been putting their own spin on it." He took another drag. "Ino's really matured in the last couple months, and Shikamaru's always been smart enough to keep out of trouble. Choji's the only one I'm not sure about right now… but I'm sure they'll get him through any problems. That's why I entered them. It'll be a good learning experience"

"It's the same with every team, I think," Kurenai said. "I feel the same way about Hinata. She's not quite there yet, but this might be all it takes."

Obito frowned. "You're not expecting them to pass?"

Kurenai shrugged. "They might," she said, and Asuma nodded in agreement. "It's possible. But I'm not putting any money on them making chunin on their first try. This is a learning experience, first and foremost."

"Hmm."

"Oh?" Asuma elbowed him, and Obito shoved him back good-naturedly. "Maybe you're feeling differently?"

"Naruto and Sasuke don't want to take the Exam more than once," Obito said with a grin, and both of his fellow teachers laughed. "You know how they can get."

"They must have dragged Sakura into it then." Asuma grinned. "Well, maybe-"

"Actually…" Obito leaned back, quirking his lips. "It was the other way around."

"Oh?" Kurenai looked over Asuma's shoulder, her red eyes growing a little wider. "That's unusual."

"I think Sakura is looking at it the same way you two are," Obito said, looking behind him, out one of the Academy's windows. It was a sunny day, but it wasn't very warm. Depending on where it was held, that could make the second portion of the Exam interesting. "She's not hung up on winning; she just wants more experience."

"Hmm." Asuma put out his cigarette, burning it to ash in his hands and wiping the soot on his pant leg. He was careful to avoid the white mark that always hung from his hip, emblazoned with the symbol of Fire. Obito didn't know much about Asuma's time with Guardian Ninja, the dozen shinobi who were entrusted with the protection of the Daimyo over their lives. He'd never taken much interest in politics, even with his sensei taking up the Hokage's position. "She always seemed smart. She had the grades for it. Top kunoichi, right?"

Jounin picked for training duties were encouraged to keep a close eye on the graduating classes, and Asuma was the son of the Sandaime besides: he'd always taken an interest in the education of younger shinobi.

"Yes," Kurenai confirmed. "Lower taijutsu marks than Hinata, and lower teamwork marks than Ino, but she still beat out both of them everywhere else. For all the other girls in the class, it wasn't even a competition." She glanced at Obito. "Still, on your team…"

"It was hard for her, at first," Obito admitted. "Naruto and Sasuke are… I should say, aren't subtle." Both his fellow teachers chuckled.

"Without a doubt. Still, if she's the one who pushed them into it, it seems like she's maturing faster." Asuma frowned. "A little surprising, I guess."

"We'll see," Obito said. He wasn't sure himself. "If they pass this first test, then the rest of the Exam will probably show us for sure."

"Of course," Kurenai said, and then paused. "Depending on who they come up against."

"What do you mean?" Obito asked. Asuma started to reach for another cigarette and Kurenai grabbed his hand and set it back in his lap. The Sarutobi scowled at his girlfriend.

"Sand and Rain, mostly," Kurenai said. "They both sent interesting teams this year."

"I'll say," Asuma said, his scowl fading. "I'm surprised Sand sent their jinchuuriki. They must really be confident in the alliance, to show him off."

"That's probably all they're doing," Obito said idly. "Showing him off. Gaara of the Desert, right? I heard from Kushina that he's got an impressive record."

Asuma nodded. "He's already been sent on an A-Rank mission," he said, and Obito made a surprised noise at the back of his throat. "On purpose, I mean," Asuma said with a laugh. "He's the Kazekage's son; the guy seems confident in him. He's even here in person to watch him compete." His laugh turned into a frown. "But something's off about him. The kid, not the Kazekage. I'm not sure if you had a chance to see him."

"No," Obito said. "I tried not to stalk any of the new arrivals. Didn't want to give the wrong impression."

"My team ran into him yesterday," Asuma said, his frown deepening. "He's not normal. Beyond the obvious, I mean. He's got…"

Asuma paused, searching for the words. "He's a killer," he eventually decided. "I think he enjoys it."

Shit. Asuma was a good judge of character; it was something he'd inherited from his father. If he could have told Obito that based on a single encounter with Sand's jinchuriki, then Obito had no doubt it was true.

"If that's the case, they'll notice," Kurenai said, talking about their teams. "And hopefully stay out the way."

"Yeah," Obito said, crushing the churning in his gut. His team had already seen someone who held killing close to his heart; they'd know the signs, and take care of themselves. He had to believe that.

"Honestly, I'm more worried about the team from Rain," Kurenai continued. "Sending a jinchuriki is one thing. A member of the Akatsuki is another."

"Oh?" Asuma asked, as Obito sat up in shock.

"Really?" he asked, and Kurenai nodded.

"Hinata spotted him two days ago, and asked me about the clouds," she said. "The boy wears a haori with the design, but it's unmistakable. He's definitely a member, despite his youth."

"Well, doesn't mean anything on its own…" Asuma muttered, cracking a knuckle. He was starting to fidget without a new cigarette to focus on. "You don't get into the Akatsuki based on your strength; just your dedication to their mission."

"If you were that dedicated to their mission, why would you even participate in the Exam at all?" Obito asked, and Asuma shrugged.

"Rain is full of hypocrites," he said, and Kurenai laughed. "No point in worrying about it. I'm sure if they're actually Akatsuki, the village is already keeping an eye on them. The Yondaime wouldn't let one of them walk around without being watched."

Obito remembered the boy from Rain his team and Gai's had met before, the one with shark-teeth and strange, pale skin. He'd had an escort, ANBU watching from the rooftops, just as Asuma had supposed. The Sandaime's son was right; his sensei was aware that the team of an Akatsuki member couldn't go unsupervised.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "Yeah. Nothing to worry about."

"Plenty to worry about," Asuma grunted, and Obito chuckled. "But for us, not the kids." He glanced around, looking for a clock. "How much longer?"

"Five minutes," Kurenai said. "Things will be wrapping up soon."

"Interesting test this year," Obito remarked. "Having to escape a room. I remember ours tested information gathering; I guess this one is critical thinking?"

Asuma shrugged. "It might be that straightforward. The proctors are all straightforward guys this year." He grinned. "But it wouldn't be much of a shinobi exam if it weren't testing more than one thing, would it?"

###

"This is bullshit!" Naruto declared, and Sakura found herself agreeing with him one-hundred percent. Her teammate was pacing, looking like he was ready to claw at the walls with his bare hands. Sasuke wasn't moving, just staring at the cipher with his Sharingan active, stock still, but Sakura could tell he was just as frustrated as Naruto, maybe even more so.

"Three minutes," Sasuke muttered, and Sakura found herself looking back to the paper one last time. They'd finished most of it by the ten minute mark; plenty of time to spare, or so she'd thought. The first four digits had been three-three-four-seven.

But now, they didn't have a fifth. The cardinal points had been simple enough to decipher once she and Sasuke had figured out the pattern behind the kanji. They'd been puns, of all things. She'd figured that out before Sasuke had. Geography puns, mountain, river, forest, valley, with the final number determined by stroke order and number of the signature kanji. It was incredibly complicated, but not an unbeatable cipher like Sakura had been fearing, just a tough one delivered in the most confusing manner possible.

Or maybe it was, because they _didn't have a final piece_. Naruto had already run through what they'd managed to understand and every possible missing fifth digit, and the keypad had rejected him with an angry red light each time. It didn't make any sense. They were missing something that restructured the cipher entirely, or somehow they'd just got it totally and completely wrong from the beginning.

"Two minutes," Sasuke muttered.

"Sasuke, _could you_ -" Sakura started to bite out, and then held it back, startled at her own tone. Was she really that frustrated? She'd been ready to fail, right?

' _Being ready isn't the same as liking it.'_

"Two minutes?" Naruto paced forward, glaring at the table. "Dammit! Stupid… puzzle!"

He struck out in frustration, kicking the table with most of his strength and sending the cipher paper flying. The table flew up in the air, flipping end over end, and Sasuke's eyes went wide. He darted forward and caught one of the table legs, holding it in the air, and Sakura saw what had caught his eye.

There was something carved in the bottom of the table, deep in the wood.

" _C'mon_!" she said, not sure if she was about to laugh or cry, and Sasuke grunted and set the table down upside down, its legs sticking up in the air like a wooden spider as he bent down and examined the symbol carved into the base. It was the symbol for Fire, surrounded by a spiral. There were arrows at the 'exit' of the spiral; just like when she'd first entered the room, Sakura was momentarily overwhelmed by the symbol's complexity, but she saw Sasuke's Sharingan darting over it effortlessly, taking everything in.

"No way," Naruto breathed out, staring at the kanji. He looked over at Sakura. "We're not that stupid, right? We just had to look underneath-"

" _Inverted_ ," Sasuke declared, standing back up straight. Sakura didn't know what he meant. "The spiral inverts the kanji. It comes out…" His eyes went wide. "Backwards. _We are that stupid._ "

"Quit calling us stupid!" Naruto shouted, already sprinting for the pad. "Just tell me what to do!"

Less than eighty seconds now. Sasuke called out the code as Sakura stared at the bottom of the table, wondering what would have happened if Naruto hadn't kicked it. They'd been so caught up in the symbols on the paper and the walls, searching for an answer similar to the rest, that they hadn't even bothered to look underneath what they were given. What kind of lesson was that?

"Four seven four three three!" Naruto rattled off as he punched in the numbers. The pad blinked green, the sharp light on top of it pulsing. "Hell yeah!" Naruto declared. "It took it!"

They waited ten seconds. Nothing happened.

Seventy seconds remaining.

"Uh…" Sakura said. "There's no door." She wasn't sure what she'd expected from cracking the code, but 'nothing' hadn't been on the list.

Naruto looked around. "Maybe we just gotta wait?"

"The proctor said if we didn't leave the room we'd fail," Sasuke said, closing his eyes. "Maybe they were lying?"

"No." Sakura shook her head. "It can't be that." The realization came to her in a flash, and she couldn't suppress her laughter. "We have to make our own door."

Fifty seconds left. Naruto pounded his knuckles together and approached the spot where the door had vanished twenty-nine minutes before.

"Leave it to me," he grinned. "You guys solved that crap; I can solve this." He spread his feet, putting one hand out before him and cradling it with the other. Sakura and Sasuke both backed up as the distinctive whine of the Rasengan started emanating from Naruto's hand.

Thirty seconds. Naruto put more chakra into the jutsu than he had the last time Sakura had seen it, and it swelled up to half the size of his head. He stepped back, bracing himself.

"Rasengan!" he declared, and drove the jutsu directly into the wall.

The results were impressive. The wall twisted, the distortion passing so quickly that Sakura would have missed it if she blinked, and then exploded outward, the jutsu detonating in Naruto's palm and sending him stumbling back several steps. The force of the Rasengan tore a hole through the wall all the way up to and past the ceiling and three or four feet to either side of where Naruto had struck the building.

They waited in stoic silence for a moment as some more rubble rained from the ceiling and Naruto shook out his hand, hissing.

"Youch," he muttered. "Didn't realize there'd be that much kick. That wall was hard as hell."

Slowly, a chunin with flat eyes and flatter hair poked his head around the corner, looking at the extent of the devastation Naruto had caused. He whistled, looked back to them, and then past them, to the blinking green light on the keypad.

"A little overboard, don't you think?" he asked, and Sasuke smirked.

"Only if we didn't pass," he said, and Naruto giggled. He seemed a little too excited at having gotten a chance to Rasengan something. Was that a verb, Sakura wondered? The chunin scratched his chin, looking at a loss for words.

"Not sure if that was the intended solution," he admitted after a second, and Sakura blushed, feeling embarrassed for no reason. "But… you cracked the code, and you got out of the room. I guess you pass." He straightened up, giving them a sardonic bow. "And with twenty seconds to spare. Congratulations."

"Yeah yeah, no problem," Naruto waved him off, and Sakura smiled.

"Definitely were not panicking," she said, and the chunin laughed.

"Well, just about everyone else is already on their way," he said. "You guys better get going if you want to catch up. The second test will be starting in about ten minutes."

"You're not gonna bring us there?" Naruto asked, and the ninja snorted.

"You're a shinobi, and of the Leaf: you can find your way," he said with a grin. "Training ground forty-four. You better hurry." He turned around, walking down the hall and out of sight. "Beat it! I'll pass on the good news."

' _No need.'_ Sakura heard the voice again, and she saw her teammates react as well. _'Well done, you three. Good thinking on your feet. Make your way to the training ground.'_

Team Seven looked around, and then burst into motion. It would have been stupid to pass the first test by just a couple seconds and then be late for the second. They hurtled into the hallway, past the startled chunin, and leapt out the nearest open window one after the other. Sakura had to be careful not to catch her sheath on the windowsill; it wasn't an extension of her body yet, but it was getting there. She was sure of it.

' _Good luck.'_

###

They arrived at the outskirts of the forty-fourth training ground with a couple minutes to spare, and came to a stop, panting. Even for a shinobi, running more than halfway across Konohagakure in a little over five minutes was a challenge.

"Okay," Naruto decided. "This whole test is stupid, not just that puzzle."

"Quit whining," Sasuke said, blowing out a breath and steadying himself. He nodded his head at the mass of shinobi beyond the gate leading to the training zone. "Looks like quite a few passed."

He was right. The group was noticeably smaller than it had been starting out, but from a quick glance Sakura could tell there were still at least twenty teams in the mix. She and her teammates hopped the fence, clearing fifteen feet with ease, and ambled into the midst of the group, looking for familiar faces.

Tenten found her before Sakura did anyone else. "Hey!" the older girl said, wandering up and giving Sakura a slap on the shoulder. "You passed! Nice!"

"Barely," Sakura said. "We had trouble with the test." Naruto looked like he wanted to say something, but after a second just frowned and nodded.

"Really?" Tenten asked, looking askance at them. "What did you guys have? We just had to eavesdrop on another room."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"Yeah," Tenten said, looking puzzled. "There was a code we had to figure out, but it was way too complicated. There was no way we could have done it ourselves. Most of the answer was in the room next to ours though; Neji just looked through the wall and-"

Naruto slapped himself in the face, hard, and groaned. Sakura just closed her eyes, wanting to shrink down into the ground: at her side, she could practically hear Sasuke grinding his teeth.

"Wait." Tenten started giggling. "Wait, did you guys just _solve it_?" She started laughing. "Jeez, how smart are you? You actually solved that thing!"

"Smart enough to solve the cipher," Sasuke said quietly. It was the first time Sakura had heard him express anything like embarrassment or self-deprecation. "Not smart enough to _know we didn't have to._ "

Tenten just kept giggling, and her teammates wandered over, wondering what she was laughing about.

"Don't worry about it," she wheezed, waving off Lee's inquisitive look. "God, that's too funny." She saw Sakura's face, and shook her head. "Cheer up! You three must be geniuses, if you managed that!"

"Don't feel like it," Sakura muttered, and Tenten descended back into laughter.

"Look at it this way," she said with a cough, finally getting full control of herself. "There's twenty-two teams here now. That means more than a third dropped out on the first test. You did great."

"Guess they were the dumb without the dumb muscle," Naruto said, putting his hands behind his head, and Sakura finally found herself laughing as well.

"Well put," Neji said mildly. "Of course, even more will fail this test."

"That's exactly right!" The voice was huge and booming, and a mutter of surprise rapidly spread through the crowd of shinobi. Sakura turned around to find a giant striding towards her. She stumbled backwards in shock; the man was over twelve feet tall, with bright red hair that was longer than she was tall and a perpetual grin stuck to his face. He moved through the crowd and it parted before him like a wave, no one wanting to be stepped on. When he reached the front, he turned to them, putting his back to the forest, and scanned the astonished ninja, his enormous head slowly moving back and forth.

"That's exactly right," he said once again. "Welcome! I am Choza Akimichi, the proctor for the second test! How is everyone doing today?"

No one present said a thing. Either because they didn't want to answer, or because they were too surprised to. Sakura glanced over and found Team Ten watching the man intently. Choza looked just like Choji, the same way Inoichi had looked just like Ino. He might have been his father. She'd never had much interest in Choji; she certainly didn't know that he came from a clan of giants.

"Fantastic," Choza said, taking the silence in stride. "So, twenty-two of you passed, did you? Well done, all of you!" He reached behind him, into an enormous pouch resting on his lower back, his huge fingers moving dexterously. "Unfortunately, this next test will be more challenging."

He removed something from the pouch, his huge hands hiding it completely. "This training ground is often referred to as the Forest of Death." He grinned. "Shinobi love their jokes, as I'm sure you all know. The training ground is about twenty kilometers in diameter, and at the center of the Forest, there is a tower, quite large and distinctive; you cannot miss it."

"Like you," someone muttered, and a ripple of laughter spread through the crowd. Choza chuckled along with them.

"Indeed," he said. "Now, to pass this test, you simply need to reach that tower. You will have forty-eight hours to do so, once the test begins." He looked around at all of them, his grin widening. "Of course, there is a condition."

Naruto nudged Sakura, and she glanced at him. He jerked his head, and she followed the motion to find the girl from Rain, the one wearing a black haori with red clouds, watching them out of the corner of her eye. The girl saw Sakura's attention and shifted, whispering something to her teammate. The grey-haired boy laughed and nodded.

Sakura really wished they wouldn't do that. It creeped her out. At least the boy with a gourd from Sand wasn't watching them too; his team had passed, and they were near the front of the group silently and intently staring at Choza.

The huge Akimichi brought his hand down and opened it up, revealing ten scrolls in his palm. They were small and tan, and seemed even more so lying in such a large hand. Each was marked with a symbol on the side.

"I have ten scrolls here," Choza said, his voice rumbling. "These will be critical to your success. If you do not arrive at the tower within forty-eight hours, you will be disqualified. If you arrive at the tower without a scroll, you will be disqualified." His smile grew even wider, screwing his eyes up and transitioning from good humor to almost mocking. "If you arrive with two scrolls, you will be disqualified. To pass the test, you must present both a Heaven–" he pointed at one symbol, and then the other, "–and an Earth scroll at the tower. There are five of each here, obviously."

So only five teams would pass the test? Less than a fourth of those present? Sakura blinked, realizing her error. Wait, no. It was-!

"If you show up with both scrolls, you get DQ'd?" one of the shinobi from Sand asked, and Choza ponderously nodded. The boy cocked his head, the large object wrapped in bandages on his back shifting slightly with the motion. "But you can't pass unless you present both scrolls!"

"Precisely," Choza grinned. "Glad you understand."

"Ohhh!" Sakura murmured, and Sasuke looked over at her curiously.

"What?" he mouthed, and Naruto caught the motion and looked too. Sakura looked back and forth between them.

"Team-up," she mouthed, and she saw the same realization strike her teammates. It was obvious; if they couldn't hold both scrolls themselves but they needed both to pass the test, they'd have no choice but to work with another team with an opposite scroll. They'd both arrive at the tower and present their scrolls simultaneously. That was the only answer to the paradox.

Sakura looked around. There were six Konoha teams; Hinata's, Ino's, Tenten's, and two more that she didn't know. That meant that with some luck and coordination, all of the Leaf teams could pass and leave just four from the other villages. Was that on purpose?

She saw the other shinobi looking around, a couple coming to the same conclusion. The girl from Rain nudged her teammate once more, and the boy from Sand turned around, regarding everyone with his dead green eyes. They'd both figured it out, Sakura was sure. More would follow. She doubted anyone wouldn't understand by the time the test really started.

"Ten of you will start with scrolls," Choza said, closing his palm. "The other twelve will be released into the Forest early. You will have twenty minutes to get a head start."

Twenty minutes to set traps, he meant; going to the center was pointless if you didn't have a scroll. The test was encouraging teamwork among multiple teams, preparing defenses and ambushes, and advancing into hostile territory, all at the same time. Sakura had to admit it was a little clever.

"Everyone understand? Great!" Choza said, not waiting for an answer. "You, you, you…" He pointed in turn to ten different people, randomly scattered throughout the crowd. "Come forward. Everyone else…" he turned and lumbered off towards the main gate that led into the Forest, flicking it open. Chunin stepped out from behind it, none Sakura recognized. "One minute between each: twenty minutes start when the last of you enters." He bowed. "Have fun!"

Of the ten people called forward, three of them were Konohagakure teams. It wasn't an unfair distribution, likely on purpose. Sakura was sure the village didn't want a nasty reputation for rigging the test against foreign genin. She recognized Lee, Hinata, and Shikamaru. The two Leaf teams she didn't know, along with her and her teammates, would be getting the head start.

A group from the Land of Rivers was the first to leave, immediately leaping up into the enormous trees and vanishing, and Sakura did her best to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. The Rain shinobi that had been watching them were staying behind: they'd been selected for a scroll. The team from Sand, on the other hand, was waiting by the gate with them.

The boy with the gourd was only ten feet away. The moment Sakura began to think she was glad he wasn't acknowledging their existence, he turned around.

"You," he said, staring at Naruto. His teammates shifted at his side, and he glanced at them; they stilled. "You're the Yondaime Hokage's son, aren't you?" His eyes gained a spark of life, but somehow that only made them worse. "Naruto Namikaze."

"Dunno any others," Naruto said, crossing his arms, and the boy smiled.

"I am Gaara, of the Desert," he said. His teeth were very white. "The son of the Yondaime Kazekage. I'm probably meant to kill you, right?"

Naruto started, and one of the chunin stepped forward. "Alright, too creepy," he said. "You guys, go, into the forest. Get."

Team Seven took the invitation gladly, rushing into the forest and following the example set by the team from River: they jumped up into the trees, losing themselves in the canopy. The trees were huge and thick, and the shadows they cast were nearly absolute.

"What the _fuck_?" Naruto asked when they'd gained a decent amount of distance from the gate, turning back and looking where they'd come from, like he expected Gaara to be right behind them. "What was _that_?"

"He's crazy," Sasuke grunted. "We're staying out of his way. I think we can all agree we don't want any of that." They came to rest on a branch, so large and wide that it could have passed for a street if it weren't hundreds of feet in the air. Most of the trees in the Forest were founding trees, still green and always growing. Sakura doubted there was another forest like it in the world, but to anyone from Konoha, it would feel familiar, if not friendly. A home field advantage.

"Crazy doesn't cover it," Naruto muttered. "What the hell is the Kazekage teaching his kids?"

"Who knows." Sakura shivered. "Sasuke's right; let's just avoid him. He's not starting with a scroll: hopefully it will stay that way."

"So, what's the plan?" Naruto squatted down on the branch, looking around the forest. Visibility was low, Sakura thought. The trees were so thick and the shadows so thick that you were lucky to have a clear line of sight that went farther than a hundred meters. Ten kilometers to the center wasn't far for a shinobi, but it was a lot longer than it seemed in an environment like this.

"Ten teams with scrolls," Sasuke said to himself. "And three of them from Konoha."

"Hinata and Tenten's teams both have the Byakugan," Sakura said. "They'd be a big help. If it's possible, we should try to team up with one of them and then track down whatever scroll they don't have."

"Team Ten's probably thinking the same thing," Naruto mused. "No, they've got Shikamaru, they're definitely thinking something smarter. They'll probably team up with Gai's team right away and just head right for the tower. Neji's too damn strong for them not to."

"You're right," Sasuke nodded, and Sakura smiled. There was a simple joy in working together. "So, we'll be looking for Team Eight. They're the most likely candidate."

"We've got more than twenty minutes," Sakura said. "We should get to know the area a little. It's probably going to be chaotic at first, with everyone getting released into the same section. It'll help if we know what's where."

Sasuke nodded. "Good idea. Stay within sight of each other: other teams will be showing up soon. We don't want to get in any pointless fights." He pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "I'll check by the entrance." He was taking the most dangerous position, Sakura thought. It made sense; Sasuke was the best of them in a one-on-one fight.

"I'll check around here then," Naruto said. "Sakura, you okay with going deeper?" She gave him a thumbs up, and he smiled. "Awesome. Like Sasuke said; let's stay in sight."

They spread out, moving along the trees like bizarre spiders, clinging to the bark with their chakra. Sakura looked around; the forest was like a three dimensional maze, both horizontally and vertically, thanks to the sheer number and size of branches that protrude from every tree. Even a normal person without ninja training could probably make it a fair distance into the forest without ever touching the ground; the canopy was that dense. She looked back, and found Naruto's blond hair a reassuring speck of color in the dark greens and greys of the forest.

It would be incredibly easy to ambush others, and be ambushed in turn, in this environment. Sakura could see and hear wildlife as well; far below, there was crashing as the underbrush was crushed underfoot by something large and fast. The trees were dotted in bits of dead bark and circular holes. Sakura wasn't sure what could have left those, but after some looking she found her answer. A leach the size of her arm with three sets of fly-like wings was suckling on a branch below her, blindly gnawing at the bark.

Gross. Sakura wasn't sure if those things fed on blood as well, but she wouldn't be surprised. She resolved to avoid them no matter what. Maybe they could be used on another team, though…

She wasn't sure what made her look up. It wasn't a definite feeling or instinct. Nothing went through her peripheral vision. It was mostly happenstance. But nonetheless, she jerked her head up, and realized someone was watching her.

There was a man standing on a branch less than fifty feet away, separated from her by the thick air of the forest. It wasn't another genin. He looked like a chunin supervisor, Sakura thought; he was wearing the standard uniform and vest of one, though his long black hair kept the uniform from looking purely professional. It was bound up by a Leaf hitai-ate that he wore like a bandana. She was sure there were other ninja in the Forest observing the exam. But were they supposed to be seen?

Subconsciously, she started reaching for her sword. It was only when her hand settled on the hilt that she started wondering why.

"Are you Sakura Haruno?" The man's voice was gentle, but it carried over the divide effortlessly. Sakura nodded, and he leapt over to her branch, landing without a sound. He was handsome, Sakura thought, despite the deep frown lines that ran down his cheeks. His face reminded her of someone. It was only now that he was closer that she realized that missing two fingers from his left hand: his pinky finger was gone entirely, and his ring finger ended at the first joint.

He looked like an Uchiha, she realized, and like Sasuke in particular. Not even close to identical, but there was a definite resemblance.

"Who are you?" she asked, not taking her hand off her sword.

"A proctor," the man said, and Sakura marginally relaxed. He'd startled her, but his voice and mein was calm, maybe even protective. She didn't get any sense of threat from him. "I've got something important to tell your team. Would you mind calling them over? The last of the groups have just entered the Forest: we won't have much time."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Naruto!" she called. "Sasuke!" Then, more quietly, "You're not cheating or something, are you? Because we don't want the help. We can do this on our own."

The man laughed. "I'm sure you can. Don't worry, I won't help you."

Sakura let go of her sword, and Naruto and Sasuke broke through the canopy behind her a second later.

"Sorry Sakura!" Naruto called, still about forty feet away. "We didn't realize you were out of-"

He stopped, as though he'd run into a wall. Sakura turned, wondering what had happened, and found both Sasuke and Naruto staring at her. Sasuke was turning pale, his mouth moving but nothing coming out.

"What?" she asked. "Sasuke, are you alright?" Something was wrong; her skin prickled.

She realized she'd turned her back to the man, and found her hand wandering back to her sword. The hair on the back of her neck rose.

Her teammate found his voice.

"What…" he said, choking on something invisible. He snarled, and Sakura felt her heart jump at the expression. "What are you doing here?"

A hand gently wrapped around Sakura's arm, and she froze, unable to shift it another inch. She couldn't reach her sword; she couldn't move at all. There was enormous strength in the three fingers resting on her. She knew in an instant that if the shinobi wanted to, he could snap her arm without much effort.

She looked back, up at the man, and found his eyes swirling and red. They glanced down at her, and then fixed back on Sasuke. A Sharingan. He was an Uchiha. But if he was an Uchiha, Sakura thought, why was he grabbing her? Why was Sasuke so obviously terrified and shaking with rage? What was going on?

"Just visiting," the Uchiha said. He smiled sincerely. "What kind of brother would I be if I didn't check up on you, Sasuke?"

"Let her go," Naruto said. He was scared too, but Sakura was just confused. Sasuke had a brother? He'd never mentioned that to her. No one had. She'd assumed he was an only child, like her and Naruto. "Let her go right now!"

"Of course." The hand around Sakura's hand relaxed, but the man spoke again before she could step forward. "Don't move, Sakura."

She didn't know what started it. She didn't try anything, and she was pretty sure the man behind her didn't move either. But Naruto and Sasuke glanced at one another, and then they both charged forward.

It happened so fast that it was only in hindsight that Sakura understood what had happened. Something pushed her forward, not hard enough to hurt but enough to bring her down. She tumbled across the branch, rolling back to her feet, and the sound of a Rasengan blew past her. Before she could finish her roll, there was a grunt and an explosion, and Sasuke yelled.

Sakura came back to her feet, spinning and drawing her sword all in the same motion, and found Sasuke's brother unmoved, about six feet away. Naruto was buried in a small crater behind him, stunned and insensible, and Sasuke was facedown on the branch, his left arm twisted behind his back. He was squirming, but his brother was kneeling on the small of his back as he held down Sasuke's right arm. He was twisting Sasuke's left farther and farther; Sasuke growled and bucked, but was completely unable to escape.

Sakura's eyes went wide and she raised her sword into a ready position, rushing forward. She led with the blade, transforming her whole body in a spear aiming directly for the Uchiha's neck, and Sasuke's brother glanced at her. He released Sasuke's other arm, but it stayed stuck to the ground, as though his brother's shadow were grabbing it. His hand came up; the sword swept forward.

He caught the blade between his thumb and index finger and Sakura came to an abrupt stop, grunting as her considerable momentum immediately vanished. She almost lost her grip on the hilt.

They struggled to pull the blade back to attack again, but it was completely stuck.

"Itachi!" Sasuke shouted. "Don't touch-!"

Itachi, Sasuke's brother, twisted one more time. Sakura heard a loud, clear _snap_ , and Sasuke screamed, flailing his whole body and kicking at the branch fruitlessly. Naruto was groggily trying to get up, his hands scrabbling at the bark of the crater.

"You're not ready," Itachi said mildly. He looked down at his brother; Sakura was too afraid to drop her sword and attack without it. What could she do? She'd just end up like her teammates. "Still only two tomoe? What have you been doing with your time?"

Sasuke gasped. His arm flopped to his side, and Sakura felt nauseous at its limp movement.

"I'm not like you!" he said.

"Oh?" Itachi asked. "Interesting."

"You bastard," Sasuke groaned. Itachi pushed Sakura's sword back, releasing it. She should have struck again, but her heart was pounding so hard it felt like her entire body was shaking. She knew without a doubt that if she attacked, Itachi would just break her arm too. Maybe worse.

"You should drop out," Itachi said, still sounding like a friendly proctor. Sakura was shaking. How could he sound like that right after breaking his brother's arm? He glanced at Sakura, and then at Naruto, still trying to work up the strength to get out of the crater. "None of you are prepared to be chunin."

"I'm doing this so I could find you," Sasuke said, still breathless with pain. "I need to be strong enough-"

"Well, I'm here," Itachi said. "And you're not strong enough."

There was a silence for a moment, and Sakura lowered her sword, wondering what she should do. Suddenly, Itachi stood up and backed away, jumping over Naruto. Sasuke slowly pulled himself to his feet, and Naruto managed to crawl out of the crater, shaking his head and looking over his shoulder at Itachi.

"I will be," Sasuke said, his voice low and full of anger.

Itachi considered him.

"Acquire the third," he said suddenly.

"Is that all you want?" Sasuke said. Sakura thought he sounded as though he might cry. "That's it? My eyes?"

"You shouldn't listen to mother," Itachi said with a frown. "There's many things I want, but that isn't one of them." He took a step towards the side of the branch. "Remember what I said. Leave the Forest; this isn't your time."

"Drop dead," Sasuke snarled, and Itachi smiled.

"It was nice to see you, Sasuke. Until next time."

He stepped off the branch without a sound, plummeting into the forest, and Team Seven was suddenly alone.

"Damn it." Sasuke fell to one knee, cradling his broken arm, and Sakura stepped forward, trying to get a better look at it. He swatted her away, a tear in one of his eyes.

" _Damn it_."


	14. Uncertain Future

Unexpected Allies

The splint was primitive, but it was the best Sakura and Naruto could manage. They'd fashioned it from some of the bandages they'd carried with them and two small branches, twigs compared to the trees around them. When it was in place and Sasuke's arm was immobilized, Sakura sat down, trying to figure out what had happened. Naruto sat with her, while Sasuke paced. Both her teammates had obvious bruises as well, Sasuke's on his other arm and Naruto's on his face.

Sakura was the only one without a scratch.

"We have to go after him," Sasuke said eventually. Sakura looked at his arm, and then at him.

"And then what?" Naruto asked. "Get our asses kicked again?" He shook his head. "If we chase him, we'll be giving up the Exam. That's just what he wants."

"Who cares about the Exam?!" Sasuke demanded, pacing harder. "He's going to…" He stopped, his face twisting. "I don't know what he's going to do."

Sakura sighed. "I don't understand what's happening," she said, and Naruto and Sasuke shared a look. She was reminded of how distant she'd felt when she'd first joined the team; she thought she'd been making inroads with both of them, and with their sensei, but here, now, with Sasuke's arm broken, she felt farther away than ever.

' _You're just their teammate. Not their friend.'_ She tried to crush the thought. It wasn't true.

"We never told you about Itachi?" Naruto asked, and Sakura shook her head. He looked dumbstruck.

"My brother…" Sasuke started, fumbling for the words. "Sakura, that first day, when Obito came to us in the classroom and asked us about ourselves, I said I had something to attend to. Do you remember?"

Sakura nodded. She remembered the way Sasuke's face had gone sharp, turning from handsome to hateful for just a second. But she'd never asked. It hadn't been her place.

' _Maybe they're not your friends because you don't act like they're yours.'_

Shut up, Sakura told herself. This wasn't the time for that.

"When I was seven years old, Itachi…" Sasuke went quiet again, gazing at something Sakura couldn't see. She leaned forward a little, giving him a questioning look, and to her surprise Sasuke took a shuddering breath and remained quiet.

"He went crazy," Naruto cut in, and to Sakura it looked like Sasuke was almost grateful. She'd never seen him so uncertain. "He went crazy and killed his dad, and Obito's brother, and a bunch of other Uchiha." He looked to Sasuke like he was asking for permission, and Sasuke nodded, confirming Sakura's suspicion. "Almost half the clan."

Sakura had always known that the Uchiha had suffered a tragedy. She'd always known that Sasuke's father was dead. Shinobi dying was a fact of life, and the clan had picked themselves back up and continued on with their lives. Sasuke had been quiet and bad-tempered for a whole year when they were young, and in hindsight she'd assumed that his father had died on a mission and that he'd been struggling with it. The way he'd overcome that sorrow had been what had made him so admirable to her; it's why she'd wanted to be on a team with him all those months ago.

But… it had been Sasuke's _brother_?

"That's horrible," she whispered, and Naruto grimaced in agreement.

"Sasuke's family thinks that Itachi is going to come back for him," he said as Sasuke continued to stare into the distance. Sakura started as a memory cut across her mind, a serious, burned face regarding her with appraising eyes.

"I didn't realize… Sasuke's mom told me that." Sakura waved off Naruto's questioning look. "Coming back to kill him too?" she asked, trying not to think about how horrible the subject matter was. "Why wouldn't he have when he was younger?"

"Not to kill me," Sasuke said. He was pale. Sakura wasn't sure if it was because of the conversation or his arm. "For my eyes."

Sakura paused. "You said something about that," she said slowly. "You don't mean… literally?"

Sasuke nodded; his pacing had finally stopped. "Have you ever wondered about Obito's title?"

What did that have to do with anything? "Mangekyo no Obito?" Sakura asked. "Uhh, not really," she admitted after a moment. "I didn't really see what a kaleidoscope had to do with it; I thought it might have to do with his sword and that white chakra it lets off, but I didn't really…"

_'Care?'_

No, she told herself. It just wasn't important. She cared. Why would she think otherwise?

"He has that name because of his Sharingan," Sasuke said. "That weird design his eyes have: that's a Mangekyo Sharingan. It's an evolution of the standard eye."

"Yeah," Naruto chimed in. "One tomoe, two, three, that's normal. But the Mangekyo-"

"Is something else entirely," Sasuke cut him off. He was a little less pale. Maybe talking was helping him take his mind off his arm. "Only the most elite, like Obito and Itachi, can evolve it. But once you do, anytime you use your Sharingan, you start to go more and more blind." His lips twisted. "This all used to be really secret clan stuff. But after Obito, it got out in the open, during the Third War. I don't know how."

"But if sensei got his Mangekyo Sharingan that long ago, why isn't he blind?" Sakura asked. Something wasn't adding up here. "And how do you even know Itachi has a Mangekyo?"

"Sasuke's mom and Obito both say so. And that's why Sasuke's family is worried about Itachi coming after him," Naruto said.

"I think I know why Obito isn't blind," Sasuke continued, clearly resisting the urge to start pacing again. "If someone with the Mangekyo Sharingan implants the eyes of a close relative, ideally a sibling, those eyes will never degrade, while retaining the power of the old ones."

He sounded like he was reciting something, Sakura thought. She got the feeling Sasuke had had this rehearsed to him several times.

"So, super gross, Obito probably has his brother's eyes," Naruto said with a dour look.

"And the reason Itachi wants you to unlock a third tomoe…" Sakura murmured, and Sasuke nodded.

"So that he can take my fully developed eyes," he said. "That's what mother thinks."

"That's so creepy." Sakura couldn't think of anything better to say, and Naruto laughed at her bluntness.

"Yeah, he's a creep," he said. "You saw that. He'd have to be, to kill his own family like that." He glanced at Sasuke. "We always figured he'd come after us; just not so soon." He frowned. "I'm really sorry we didn't tell you. Maybe if-"

"Don't worry about that," Sakura said. "Just… that's not what we should worry about right now."

"Yeah," Naruto acknowledged. "I guess the real thing is if we should keep going or not."

Sasuke sighed. "You were right, Naruto. We can't catch up with him," he said, grimacing. "Even if we'd chased him right away. He was always too fast. If he was going to kill anyone else, he would have done it before coming here… and if he's going after anyone, he'd get to them before we could." He sighed. "I think he was being honest. He's just here for me."

"Then… he asked you to drop out," Sakura said. "Do you think he meant it?"

"No," Sasuke said. "I don't know if it was reverse psychology or something else, but if he really wanted me to drop out, he would have done worse than break my arm." He rubbed his shoulder, wincing. "He might not even have left. He might just be watching us, seeing what I'll do."

Sakura tried not to show just how disconcerting she found that idea.

"He wants you to keep going, I bet," Naruto said with what he probably thought was a sage nod. "There's no way he'd think you'd actually listen to him. You develop more tomoe from challenges, right? From being stressed out?" Sasuke nodded, and Naruto grinned. "Well, doing the Chunin Exam with a broken arm would definitely be that."

This was all a game, Sakura thought. Sasuke's brother was playing a game with them. Now that Sasuke had raised the possibility, she was sure they were being watched, but she had no way of knowing if that was her instincts or just paranoia. In a forest like this, which had just filled up with over sixty ninja, more than just Itachi could be watching them.

"So… we should play along then," she said. "Keep going, if that's what he wants."

"If that is what he wants," Sasuke repeated quietly. "He could have really thought we should drop out."

"If he thought that, fuck him," Naruto declared, shooting to his feet. "Sakura and I are both still fine, and you've still got one arm. We can still do this."

What a contrast, Sakura thought. Naruto was always like that; he might have been hesitant to start the Exam but now that he was here he was going to give one-hundred and ten percent. It was definitely one of his most admirable qualities. She smiled and stood up as well.

"It's up to you, Sasuke," she said. "You're the one who's hurt."

Sasuke looked at the both of them, and then out to the forest.

"Tch." He grunted, his nostrils flaring. "Naruto's right. Fuck him." Sakura giggled. She'd never heard Sasuke swear before. "If we're going to drop out, we should at least drop out trying."

###

Team Seven set out in search of Team Eight, sticking to the treetops as they scanned the training ground. They didn't see any other competitors, but every once in a while, they could hear them. Distant yelling, the occasional scuffle, and once an explosion, either a jutsu or a detonating tag. Naruto had tied a message around his arm, written on a piece of bandage: 'Hinata.' They'd hoped that the Byakugan would pick it up, and that the other Leaf team would come to them.

That hadn't happened. Two hours into the second test, Team Seven still hadn't seen a single other shinobi. Plenty of animals, including bugs the size of a grown man's arms and birds bigger than couches that hunted them, but no genin.

"We should start heading for the center," Sasuke said. He held his arm stiffly at his side; Sakura had seen him wince once or twice as they'd leapt from tree to tree and it had jostled against him. "It's been too long; people are probably already heading towards the tower."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, and Sakura nodded. If they weren't finding anyone or being found in turn, the main groups of teams must have already made their way past them. They'd been given two days to complete the test, but for most people, it wouldn't take nearly that long.

They turned north, orienting towards the center of the forest, and moved off more slowly than they had before. They'd been skirting the southern edge of the training ground, hoping to catch anyone lingering near the entrances; by moving towards the center, they were advancing into potentially hostile territory. Without actively communicating, they fell into a standard triangular formation, with Naruto and Sakura at the front and Sasuke covering their rear, keeping about ten meters apart as they advanced through the canopy.

The forest was an amazing place, Sakura thought. It was both deceptively huge and amazingly dark: it was around noon, when it should have been brightest, but only a fraction of the sunlight managed to penetrate the enormous trees around them. Konoha might not have been so hidden anymore thanks to the demands of a modern industry and a population that enjoyed things like plastic and instant ramen, but when it had first been founded decades ago, it must have been impossible to find the Village Hidden in the Leaves unless you knew exactly where to look.

It was strange, that the Hidden Villages were no longer truly hidden, that they were known factors that everyone planned for and understood, that were important parts of their nation's government, Sakura thought. She wasn't smart enough to call that good or bad, silly or normal: just strange.

"Hold up." Naruto raised one of his hands, and Sakura and Sasuke both came to an immediate stop, resting against the sides of the trees closest to them. Sakura felt her chakra work its way into the bark of the tree, anchoring her in place, and marveled that something that had been so alien to her just months ago was now totally second nature: she hadn't even thought about sticking to the surface, she just _had_.

"Down below," Naruto whispered, and Sakura followed his line of sight just in time to catch a flicker of movement, black against the shadows of the forest. Someone had just relocated, about eighty meters away and thirty down. "I think they saw us."

"We don't have a scroll," Sakura said. "Why would they bother us?"

"They don't know that," Sasuke said quietly, and Sakura resisted the urge to slap herself. Duh. How would they have known that? Any team was a potentially valuable target more than two hours in; there was no guarantee people who'd started without scrolls still didn't have any, or vice versa.

"What should we do?" Naruto asked, and Sakura considered the problem. By now, that shinobi they'd seen could be anywhere.

"Go up?" she asked. "Harder to get surrounded that way."

Sasuke shook his head. "And easier to get cornered," he muttered, peeling his upper body off his tree. "Use me."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke stared at him like he was an idiot.

"As bait," he said with a smirk, shifting his broken arm slightly for emphasis. "I'm a good target. I'll go out ahead, and try to get them to jump. Then, you guys jump _them_."

"That's dangerous." Sakura frowned, and Sasuke shrugged.

"Better than just waiting here. Sound good?" Naruto and Sakura shared a glance, and Naruto sighed.

"Just be careful, okay?" he said, and Sasuke grinned back.

"Of course," he said, and then he was off, tearing through the forest without looking back and descending in altitude.

"He can make a lot of noise," Naruto admitted. He was right: Sasuke wasn't dampening his footsteps with chakra, and he was raising a veritable cacophony leaping from tree to tree and tearing through smaller branches. There was no way the other team wouldn't notice him. "I thought that was my thing."

"Well, maybe you can show him how it's done after this," Sakura said, and Naruto grinned at her. "C'mon: let's follow him."

They went after Sasuke, silent and invisible in the trees, keeping about one-hundred meters behind their teammate. The subdued chase continued for about thirty seconds, and then Sasuke came to a stop.

Sakura strained to see why through the cover provided by the trees, and found Sasuke perched on a branch, looking at something she couldn't see. His mouth was moving, she was pretty sure: he was speaking with someone. The way he held himself told her he wasn't frightened, but he was alert. The person who Naruto had seen, or one of their teammates, had probably confronted him.

"Let's go around," she told Naruto, and he nodded as they changed directions, heading towards whoever Sasuke was speaking with. They went in a slight arc, so they'd approach from the rear.

"Where's the rest of you?" she heard Sasuke say, his voice faint, when they were within fifty meters.

"They're around." Sakura thought she recognized the voice that answered. It was a boy, a cocky one. It wasn't someone she knew, but the tone was familiar. "What about yours?"

"They're around," Sasuke retorted, and there was a rustle of leaves. Sakura came out from behind a tree and finally saw who he was speaking with. It was the boy from Rain, the one with shark teeth. The Ame-nin was standing on a branch above Sasuke, looking down at him with his arms crossed. His teammates were nowhere in sight.

"Sounds likely." The boy couldn't see Sakura and Naruto approaching from behind him, fixated on Sasuke. Sakura looked at Naruto, tapping the hilt of her sword, and she was pretty sure he understood right away; if she was the one to attack, she might kill him, and they didn't want that. Taking him down was going to be Naruto's responsibility. "You're probably bait, right-?"

Naruto pushed off his tree, hard, to cover the last thirty meters, and the enemy shinobi must have heard something. He turned around just in time for Naruto's foot to connect with his neck.

To his credit, Naruto didn't yell 'Gotcha!', or anything else that Sakura had expected him to say. But that was probably because when his kick took the Ame-nin in the throat, the boy's upper body exploded into water. So instead of knocking the shinobi out, Naruto let out a surprised yelp and soared straight through his opponent, over Sasuke, and directly into an inconveniently placed tree, burying his foot in its bark.

"Wow!" The boy uncrossed his arms and laughed, looking back to Naruto. He hadn't seen Sakura; she unsheathed her sword, mind whirling. Was he a clone made of water, or was that some sort of jutsu? Either way, he probably wouldn't die if she cut him. Her knuckles went white as her grip tightened. "Little dramatic, don't you think?"

Sakura didn't make a sound; she just leapt and swung in the same motion, landing on the tree besides the boy and spinning to face him. He glanced at her, and his head fell off.

Sakura had thought that maybe if she'd separated his head, he wouldn't be able to pull the same trick, but that wasn't the case. He caught it in one hand before it could hit the branch. "Huh, it _is_ you guys," he said, raising it back up and making an exaggerated motion of screwing it back onto his neck. His body flowed, melting into water for a second and then solidifying once more. "I told you, Leaf shinobi got no idea how to treat guests."

"You're made of water?" Naruto shouted, struggling to free his foot from the tree. "That's not fair!"

"There's no such thing as fair when it comes to shinobi." Another voice came from higher above them, and Sakura glanced up to find one of the boy's teammates looking down at them; the boy with grey hair and glasses. He smirked. "That was a good attempt though: he'd be unconscious _and_ dead if he weren't cheating."

They were in trouble. Sakura backed up, raising her sword. One opponent right in front of her, another above and to the right, and the third one nowhere to be seen. Her hand was shaking a little, and she placed her other one on the sword as well, steadying it.

"We don't have a scroll," she said, and the boy grinned. "If that's what you're wondering, there's no point in us fighting."

"I already told him," Sasuke said. "Apparently, they don't care."

"It's true." Sakura spun; there was a new voice, soft and gentle, coming from right behind her. She jumped away, down to Sasuke's branch and put her back to him, looking up where she'd come from. The third Rain ninja was there, the one with the black and red haori. She looked down at them, her brown eyes sharp. "We don't care if you have a scroll." She smiled, and to Sakura it seemed totally genuine. "In fact, it's lucky that you don't."

"What do you mean?" Naruto had finally gotten his leg unstuck and he was standing on the side of the tree, rotating to keep all three of the enemy ninja in view. What were their odds, Sakura wondered. They clearly just wanted a fight. The guy made of water would have to be Sasuke's problem: he was the only one with fire jutsu. What if the others-

Her train of thought was entirely derailed, in the same manner of something falling off a table and exploding when it hit the ground, when the girl above them took something out of the folds of her haori and tossed it down to them. Sasuke caught it instinctively with his unbroken arm, and he and Sakura glanced at it, neither able to believe what they were seeing.

It was a scroll, emblazoned with the symbol of Heaven.

"What?" Sasuke asked, looking at the scroll again and then up at the Rain ninja. The boy smirked at him. "What?" he asked again. "Why?"

"We were lucky enough to come into two scrolls early on," the boy with glasses said, leaping down to join his teammates. He produced an Earth scroll with a grin. "But it's not much good to have both without someone to hand it in with, is it?"

"You didn't work with the team that had the other?" Sasuke asked suspiciously, and the girl shrugged.

"They didn't want to cooperate," she said. "We thought it would be simpler to find someone who would."

"Lucky you." The other boy smiled, revealing his shark teeth. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, you know, getting to team up with us: we're gonna pass this exam for sure. You gonna be smart enough to take it?"

"What if you just take us out like you did the other team?" Naruto asked, narrowing his eyes, and the girl laughed.

"We could," she said. "It would be easy, with one of you hurt. Sasuke Uchiha, right?" Sasuke started at his name, and the girl waved him off. "Don't worry: you're a little famous, you know. Who managed to break your arm like that?"

"Doesn't matter," Sasuke said, and the girl shrugged.

"Kabuto?" she asked, and the boy with glasses jumped down to their branch. Sakura leveled her sword at him, and he raised his hands with a disarming grin.

"Look, no funny business, alright?" he said, showing his empty hands. That didn't mean anything: a ninja's hands could be their deadliest weapon. He walked forward slowly. "Put it to my neck if you want, I don't really care." He looked at Sasuke. "Do you mind if I take a look at your arm?"

Sasuke glanced at her, and Sakura took Kabuto's advice, putting her sword to his neck; he just shrugged. What if he was made of water too? Even if he wasn't, could she cut someone's head off knowing for sure it would kill them? Sakura wasn't sure she had it in her. Kabuto continued to walk slowly forward. "I'm not gonna touch you," he said. "I've got medical training. We just wanna show we're serious. If you consider teaming up, I'll fix up that arm for you."

Sasuke frowned suspiciously. "Prove it."

"You hurt him," Naruto threatened from above, "and I'll smash you into a million pieces."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Kabuto said, and Sakura had no idea if he was being sarcastic or not. He gingerly reached out, looking at Sasuke for permission, and hesitatingly, Sakura's teammate extended his broken arm. Kabuto ran his hand over it, a faint green glow issuing from his palm.

"It's a clean break," he muttered after a second. "It would heal quickly even without my help." He looked up. "Do you mind if I touch it?"

"If you want. Remember, you've got a sword at your neck," Sasuke said, and Kabuto laughed, glancing at Sakura.

"Hard to forget. Steady hands, though. Have you ever cut someone with that?"

Sakura didn't answer. If she lied, she'd look like a fool. If she told the truth, it would be even worse.

Kabuto didn't seem to mind the lack of response. He reached out with both hands, fingers making contact with Sasuke's skin, and the Uchiha flinched. The Rain shinobi's palms began glowing again, and he traced them up and down Sasuke's arm, leaving trails of iridescent green chakra that sunk into Sasuke's skin.

"Does it hurt?" Sakura asked. She'd never seen medical jutsu before. Sasuke shook his head.

"It's warm," he said. "I think…"

"Just give me a minute," Kabuto said, and Sasuke did, letting him run his hand up and down the arm twice more, focusing on the elbow. "Okay." He released Sasuke's arm and then, to Sakura's shock, gave it a slap. Her teammate barely reacted. "Any pain?"

"...no," Sasuke said. "Doesn't hurt at all."

"Cool." Kabuto grinned. "Good as new then."

"That's totally amazing!" Naruto had been watching the whole thing with wide eyes and now he was smiling, totally taken in by the display. "Hey, thanks! If you're being serious, we'll be happy to team up with you guys!"

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted up at him, and he looked down at her with a confused expression. "Are you sure about that?"

"If they're willing to fix Sasuke," Naruto said, "why shouldn't we?"

"You wanna pass, right?" the other boy from Rain said. "You shouldn't stick your nose up at help."

Sakura looked back and forth between both her teammates: Naruto was enthusiastic, but Sasuke was just quiet. He was probably thinking the same thing as her, she thought. Even if this was some sort of trick, they could at least use this team to get themselves farther. Just fighting them and taking both their scrolls wouldn't be the smart move. There was no guarantee they'd win.

Passing with the team from Rain would be better than losing without them.

"Alright," she decided after a moment, lowering her sword from Kabuto's neck. He adjusted his glasses, still looking unruffled. "Sorry about that."

"Nothing to apologize for," he said good-naturedly. "I'm sure I would have done the same thing, in your situation." He stuck out his hand, open and inviting. "Want to start over?"

Sakura regarded his hand, but Sasuke was the first to take it. "Sasuke Uchiha," he said. "Though it sounds like you already know me."

"Kabuto Yakushi," Kabuto said with a firm shake. "It's a pleasure, Sasuke." He pointed up at his teammates. "My friends up there-"

"Suigestu Hozuki!" the other boy called down with a grin. "You can let me introduce myself, you know!"

Kabuto laughed. "Of course. My apologies." He surrendered with an overly dramatic wave of his hand.

"I'm Naruto Namikaze!" Sakura's teammate called out. "And she's Sakura Haruno!" He looked at the last Rain ninja, waiting for a name. "And what about you?"

The girl gave him a gentle smile. "I am Haku Yuki," she said. "It's nice to meet you all. I hope we can complete this together."

Haku: that was the name of the shinobi who'd been watching them since before the first test. She seemed kind, but looking around, Sakura was sure that them meeting up more than two hours into the test like this wasn't a coincidence. The team from Rain had already had both scrolls. It was like they'd been looking for them.

That couldn't be it, right? There was no way they could have known the second test would involve working with another team ahead of time. But maybe once they had…

' _Who would want to team up with_ you _?'_

"Sakura?" Naruto asked. "You alright?"

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah." She tried to smile. "It's nice to meet you all."

"Likewise," Haku said. She gestured to the east. "There's a river heading north, we think towards the tower at the center; we were following it before we ran into you. Shall we?"

Sasuke nodded, and Team Seven left with the team from Rain, making their way towards the river and an uncertain future.


	15. Sins of the Past

Picking Up The Sword

It only took them five minutes to find the river, and when they did they turned north, following it towards the center of the forest. As they walked along it, Sakura wondered how long the team from Rain had been following them before they'd been noticed. The two teams had naturally fallen into a modified triangle formation; Sakura and Haku walked together on the banks of the river, and Suigetsu and Sasuke formed the vanguard up ahead. Naruto and Kabuto were both walking on the river itself, completing the triangle. It hadn't been a verbal agreement for them to pair up team by team, but it made sense. Each of them wanted to keep an eye on the other.

Haku was quiet, but her teammates were not. The girl had a kind of severe beauty, Sakura thought, but now that they'd been walking side by side for some time, she'd begun to notice that Haku was more androgynous than she'd seemed at first appearance. The other ninja had a couple inches on her: she was about the same size as Tenten, and probably close to her in age.

Down in the river, Naruto and Kabuto were talking.

"How'd you learn it?" her teammate asked. Sakura couldn't see them over the lip of the bank, but she could hear them despite their hushed tones. The Forest of Death wasn't a quiet place, with the constant sound of wind rustling the trees and distant and not so distant animals, not to mention the rushing of the river, but they were all still very aware they were in potential enemy territory.

"I started when I was young," Kabuto answered. The bespectacled shinobi had a calm, warm tone, but Sakura thought something sounded off about him. Everything he said was carefully constructed. Maybe that was just how he was. "My mother taught me."

"Your mom's a shinobi too?" Sakura let her mind drift a little as she listened to the conversation, keeping a lookout on the forest.

"She's not by birth. I didn't know my birth parents. She found me on a battlefield."

"Oh. I'm really sorry. That's terrible."

"It wasn't one created by the Leaf. No need to worry about it."

"... I didn't think about that."

"Why would you?"

"... So she was a medical ninja, huh?"

"Yes." A shuffle. Someone had kicked the water. Probably Naruto. "She knew that I wanted to help people like she had, so she taught me her jutsu. By the time we arrived at Amegakure, I knew most of it."

"You weren't born in Rain?" That was pretty interesting, Sakura thought. So far as she knew, villages didn't generally take in foreign ninja. She definitely didn't know of any Leaf ninja from another village or even country. Maybe there were and she just didn't know.

"No, but when we arrived they took us in without question. Rain's like that."

"That sounds pretty nice. Is that why you teamed up with us?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it sounds like you guys are taught to get along with people."

Kabuto laughed. "I guess so. Mostly we were just desperate for someone to work with. We're the first shinobi from Rain that have gone to a Chunin Exam in many years: we don't want to fail."

"Well you picked the right team then!" Sakura couldn't see Naruto's grin, but it still made her feel a little warmer as the forest cooled down. The day was winding on, the sun growing lower. "We're hoping to win too."

"Is this your first try?" A momentary silence, maybe a nod. "That's impressive. I dunno if I'd be that confident at your age."

"Even with your medical jutsu?" Naruto sounded skeptical. "How does that work, anyway? It seems pretty crazy to just fix a broken bone like that."

"No crazier than a broken bone healing on its own," Kabuto said, and Sakura nodded along. Haku glanced at the small motion with an equally small smile, and Sakura felt a flash of embarrassment. "That's all most medical jutsu does."

"Makes it heal on its own?" Naruto asked. "Whadya mean?"

"Well, your body's got its own natural healing process," Kabuto explained. "It can change depending on your chakra for some people, but in general humans all generally heal up the same way. I'm sure you know that."

"Duh." Naruto was probably rolling his eyes. Sakura wondered if he had given Sasuke that habit, or if it was the other way around.

"Well, basic medical jutsu like the kind I can use just convinces the body to heal itself faster, with some extra help. It's a little like genjutsu, I guess." Kabuto's voice grew slightly more official; it was the voice of a teacher. The boy wasn't much older than them, but Sakura was suddenly sure he'd told other people the same thing. "The medic sends their own chakra into the recipient, though too much can induce chakra shock. That's an offensive technique, so it's not much use to me. I don't like fighting."

"Why not?"

"I saw too much when I was young, I suppose." Naruto clearly didn't know how to answer that as Kabuto continued. "So the medic's chakra enters the body, and like a genjutsu, initiates a response. In this case, it tricks the body into thinking that it has more than enough chakra to produce new cells rapidly to speed up the healing process. Something like a broken bone fixes itself by producing a hematoma, which then…"

He trailed off. If Sakura had to guess, Naruto was giving him a confused look. He'd never been one for anatomy books. "I won't get too technical," Kabuto decided with a laugh. "The point is, normally it'll take weeks to a month for the blood clot to draw enough new cells in that will become healthy bone cells, but medical jutsu tells the body and its chakra to do that with increased speed, and provides the extra energy."

"That's pretty incredible," Naruto said. "You've gotta have crazy chakra control."

"And know everything about the natural process, or else things will go wrong," Kabuto acknowledged. "They're difficult techniques to learn, but worth it."

"Fixing people up is definitely really awesome," Naruto said.

"Yes," Kabuto said, sounding a little wistful. "It means putting other people ahead of yourself. That's what being a medic ninja is."

"Hmm." Naruto hummed, and Sakura wondered what he was thinking.

They walked another thirty minutes in silence, moving slowly and quietly. They could just have rushed to the center through the treetops, Sakura thought, but the team from Rain had had the right idea. Following the river along the forest floor was both stealthier and made it easier to not get lost. The water flowed inexorably north.

"You're smart not to trust us." When Haku finally spoke in her soft voice, Sakura almost tripped over her own feet in surprise. The shinobi at her side had been totally quiet for so long that Sakura had begun to think she'd never speak at all. She glanced over at the Rain shinobi, wondering what had driven her to talk.

"What do you mean?" she asked, and Haku cocked her head, a light smile flitting across her face.

"Shinobi can be cruel," she said, and Sakura narrowed her eyes, wondering what was coming. "Even if we helped you, that doesn't free us from suspicion."

"Are you calling my teammates dumb?" Sakura asked, and Haku laughed.

"No, no, nothing like that," she said. "I think they have good instincts; they all understand the situation. I was just trying to compliment you."

"I'm not sure if I should thank you," Sakura said. Haku's smile faded.

"My apologies," she said. "I didn't intend to offend."

Sakura felt herself deflate a little, that familiar embarrassment creeping back.

' _Why're you being so ungrateful? They're helping you win.'_

"I'm sorry," she said. "After Sasuke's arm got broken… we didn't expect anyone to help us."

"I understand," Haku said, looking forward to the Uchiha. He and Suigetsu were arguing about something, but Sakura couldn't tell what. Sasuke didn't look angry; if anything, he looked like he was having fun. She wondered what they were talking about. "I would have thought the same in your position." She glanced back to Sakura. "What managed to break his arm, anyway? We were told to watch out for Sasuke Uchiha; that he was one of the most dangerous genin in this exam."

That was probably why they'd teamed up with him, Sakura thought. Better to be Sasuke's friend, and Naruto's, than their enemy. That made sense.

' _You weren't part of the equation.'_

"It wasn't another genin," Sakura said, and Haku blinked. "I don't think I can say more than that. Ask him yourself if you want to know."

"Interesting," Haku murmured. She grinned. "And perhaps a little ominous."

They walked in a more comfortable silence for a couple minutes after that. This time, Sakura was the one to break it.

"Was it actually a coincidence," she asked, "that you ran into us?"

Haku looked over at her, and didn't answer right away.

"You said you were told to watch out for Sasuke," Sakura said, and gestured towards the river. "And Naruto's on the team too; the Hokage's son. You must have been warned about him too."

"Yes," Haku acknowledged gracefully. "We were told the both of them were extremely capable." She looked Sakura up and down. "I'm surprised we weren't told the same for you. Your chakra control, and your kenjutsu, were both excellent. You would have killed Suigetsu if it weren't for his jutsu. None of us noticed you coming until the last moment."

"I don't think I could have if I hadn't known about that water jutsu," Sakura said, the admission slipping out as she refused to acknowledge the compliment. "I've never killed someone."

"That's good," Haku said. "Killing someone is a terrible crime."

Sakura blinked. "You're a shinobi," she said, stating the obvious. "Do you really believe that?"

"Of course." Haku spoke with such certainty that Sakura felt for a moment the older girl possessed a secret, or understood something on a deeper level than Sakura could hope at. She sounded convincing in just two empty words. "If you end someone else's life, they're gone forever. You've wiped out everything they were and everything they could ever be. Surely, you could only do something like that with the most drastic justifications."

"I…" Sakura didn't know what to say. She'd never heard anyone say anything like that. She'd been taught since before she could even remember that sometimes, you needed to kill someone to live; her parents, her school, all her friends, they'd all told her the same thing. You could protect the Will of Fire by killing those who sought to suffocate it, and protect it with your own life. She couldn't conceive of something outside of that.

But she couldn't say Haku was wrong, because as Sakura considered it, she came to understand that the strange shinobi from Rain was totally correct.

"I guess," she eventually said, internally cringing at the weakness of the answer. Haku smiled.

"You let me distract you," she said, and Sakura shook her head.

"I was gonna get back to it," she said, and the ninja from Rain grinned.

"I could keep it up, if you'd like," Haku said, and Sakura tried to resist the urge to laugh. "I was going to ask next why you picked up a sword if you weren't sure if you could kill someone."

"That's a good question," Sakura admitted. "But mine first. If you were told about both my teammates, was it really a coincidence that we were the ones you ran into?"

"Yes," Haku said again. "We would have been happy to work with any team, but it was lucky we met up with yours." She gave Sakura a sly look. "We _were_ searching for a team to gift our spare scroll to, in the hopes it would make them trust us. I won't deny that."

"That makes sense," Sakura said, but she didn't believe her. Naruto and Sasuke were both too unique for this team from Rain to just _happen_ to run into. Probably.

' _It could happen. That's what coincidences are. You're just being paranoid. You can't believe that anyone would want to team up with you.'_

 _Shut up_.

Sakura flinched, and Haku glanced at her in concern. She waved the other girl off.

"It's hard to believe," Haku admitted. "I don't blame you if you don't."

Sakura shrugged. "It doesn't really matter if I do or not," she said. "What matters is working together now to pass."

"That's practical." Haku smiled. "How about this. I'll tell you a secret-"

Sakura held up her hand, stopping her. Down in the river, she heard Kabuto and Naruto stop as well. Up ahead, about fifty meters away, Sasuke was covertly signing something behind his back as he and Suigetsu continued chatting; the boy made of water was doing the same thing.

She couldn't recognize whatever Suigetsu was signing, but Sasuke's sign was one of the dozens of simple hand-language signs that all Konoha shinobi learned as children. "Enemy," he signed quickly, three times. "Ahead."

"Three?" Haku muttered, and Sakura confirmed with a nod. Sasuke and Suigetsu were signing the same thing. "Only one team?"

"What should we-?" Sakura started to ask, and then the earth erupted.

A huge wave of earth exploded up out of the ground below Sasuke, throwing him away and out of sight, and hurtled forward along the bank of the river towards Sakura and Haku. They both tensed, watching the jutsu come, and Sakura backed up in shock. It was like a mobile mud wall, over twenty feet tall and moving several hundred miles per hour. Getting it by it would hurt, without a doubt.

Haku grunted and jumped, and Sakura followed her into the air, trying to gain distance. The mud tsunami rolled by beneath them. It was thicker than Sakura had thought, maybe thirty feet deep; she looked around for Naruto and Kabuto, but they weren't in the river anymore.

Before she could catch her breath and decide on where she would land, three dozen shinobi all leapt out of the tsunami, eyes fixed on her and Haku as they emerged from the jutsu. They were all the same person: one of the girls with long black hair from The Village Hidden in Stone. They were all holding short swords, tanto.

"Clones," Haku noted. There was a frozen moment as the clones watched them. They'd been caught totally flatfooted, unable to maneuver. The enemy team had been trying to force them to jump.

The Rain shinobi looked over at her, and a dozen senbon fell out of her sleeve, two each resting between her fingers in both hands. She spoke, perfectly calm. The clones jumped up at them.

"No reason to worry about cutting them down."

Sakura shivered, feeling as though the words had physically struck her. Without a conscious thought, her hands found her sword.

Thirty-six shinobi attacked them at once, but they were slow. Everything was slow. Sakura drew her blade so quickly she didn't even notice it leaping into her hand.

The first clone reached her less than a half second later, and Sakura cut it in half, watching as it crumbled to dust, along with the sword in its hand. Clones made of Earth. That made sense.

She stopped thinking and started swinging as she fell into the mass of ninja. Three more came, each aiming their tanto for a different limb, and Sakura deflected one blade, kicked another clone in the face, and impaled the last. She spun in the air, taking the upward momentum as her own, and pushed herself down, slipping past most of the attackers. One lashed out at her at the last second, and their blade clipped her shoulder, barely cutting her.

Looking up, Sakura could see Haku: the ninja from Rain had thrown all of her senbon, and then another clutch, and seven clones were tumbling through the air, pierced and paralyzed. She was almost as accurate as Tenten, Sakura thought. Hitting that many targets in midair in freefall was crazy. The other clones were falling back down towards her, still over twenty of them, swords at the ready.

"Like hell!" She heard a familiar yell, and her vision was suddenly dominated by orange and blond as Naruto came out of nowhere, hitting her hard in the side and carrying her out of reach of the rest of the clones. Sakura tapped him and he dropped her; she tumbled out of his arms and rolled as she hit the ground, spinning around just in time to watch Naruto bare his teeth and hurl a couple stones he'd plucked from the ground up into the mass of clones.

One of the stones struck a clone in the temple. The rock caught fire, glowing kanji squirming across it, and all of the other stones lit up with the same light.

"You picked the wrong team!" Naruto announced, and then all the stones detonated, a series of explosions rippling out above Sakura. The blasts tore over a dozen clones apart, blowing them into earth and dust and raining rubble down on the riverbank.

Sakura watched in awe. She'd known Naruto had been working on his jutsu shiki, and figuring out ways to turn other objects into explosive tags. But she'd never seen him do it so quickly, and with so many objects at once.

There were still more than ten clones left, and they landed about fifteen feet away from Sakura and Naruto, watching them carefully. Haku landed behind them, and several turned around to keep her in sight. Naruto growled, and a Rasengan grew in his hand.

"Nicely done, Sakura." She didn't know where Kabuto had come from, but he was behind the two of them all the sudden. He lay his hand on her shoulder, and Sakura felt the small cut there knit itself closed. "We're glad you're safe."

"Naruto," Sakura said, giving Kabuto a nod. "Stay back. There's still a lot of them." Better to let them come to them, especially with Haku flanking them. The clones watched them, and one of them spat, the liquid turning to mud when it hit the ground.

"You look just like him," the girl from Stone said, and the other clones nodded in agreement. Sakura wondered where the real one was. She didn't think she was among her clones. She almost hoped not. "It's disgusting."

"What-?" Naruto muttered, and then there was another explosion, one that completely dwarfed the ones Naruto had been responsible for. Sakura looked up, trying to keep an eye on the clones as well.

It took her a second to understand what she was seeing. One of the founding trees was tipping.

The tree, which had a trunk with a radius of ten or fifteen meters and doubtlessly weighed thousands and thousands of tons, which was many times older than Sakura herself, was tipping towards them. It started so slow it could barely be perceived and rapidly gained impossible speed, crashing through the canopy and destroying hundreds of branches as it fell directly towards them.

Sakura felt her brain short circuit at the sheer size, speed, and weight of the tree coming down on top of them. It was just too big to understand. The shadow completely devoured her.

"Sakura! _Move_!" Naruto shouted, and the spell broke. Sakura yelped in shock and went left, towards the river, desperately trying to get out of the way of the tree. She jumped with all her strength, pushing herself away as fast as she could, and looked back as the tree came down on top of the short-lived battlefield. Everyone else had scattered; there were ninja everywhere, but none in the tree's shadow.

In the moment before impact, stretched out to infinity, Sakura laughed.

Sasuke was on the side of the plummeting tree, dueling someone. The moment Sakura looked back, he kicked the Stone ninja in the throat and jumped away from the tree.

He was kidding, right? Sakura couldn't suppress the giggle that wormed its way up through her throat. It felt like she was floating, suspended over the river. He had to be kidding. That was just too-

_**BOOM** _

The tree landed, the sound so loud and so violent that Sakura's whole body shuddered, all of her organs shaking and her heart jumping, and she tumbled backwards in shock. The impact threw up an enormous gust of wind, mixed with water, earth, mud, and dust, an explosion that coated everything for a hundred meters around and filled the air with debris of every kind.

Sakura landed and rolled backwards, her heart hammering in her chest. When she came to her feet, she couldn't see more than three feet in front of her. The dust and debris hung so heavily in the air that it was like she was in the middle of a storm.

Where was everyone? Her ears were ringing: Sakura stepped forward, trying to orient herself. Her eyes stung with the dust, and she teared up, raising her sword.

When she took another step, a pair of hands burst out of the ground and wrapped around her ankles.

Sakura yelped and swung, and one of the hands pulled, yanking her off balance. Her swing missed, and she fell backwards, her feet sliding along the ground as the hands pulled her back and forth. A second later, she started to sink, her feet slipping under the ground. One of the hands jerked up, grabbing at her knee and drawing her deeper.

She yelped, trying to swing again, and once again, was yanked off balance. She was going to get sucked underground. The shinobi was going to bury her.

There was a shimmer in the dust, and a series of needles flew out of the dust; four of them buried themselves in the hand on Sakura's knee, and the last one missed, leaving a small cut in her leg. The hand suddenly withdrew, and Sakura stumbled, trying to regain her balance. She spun around, but the hands didn't come back.

"Sakura?" Haku emerged from the dust, and Sakura backed up, keeping her distance.

"What were you going to tell me?" she asked. The Rain ninja could be one of the enemies wearing a henge; putting one up after all the pandemonium would be the perfect time. Haku smiled at her.

"A secret," she said, and Sakura lowered her sword. "Sorry I scratched you. It was a difficult-"

The earth behind Haku erupted, and she flinched, starting to turn. Too slow. A girl with short black hair burst from the ground, knife at the ready, swinging down to bury the blade in Haku's head. Sakura watched the whole thing in shock.

Haku's eyes went wide. Sakura's mind went blank.

She lunged and swung, covering the distance between her and Haku in a heartbeat. Her whole body rotating with the blow, ankle to hip to shoulder, a clean arc. The Stone ninja didn't have time to react: Sakura's sword clove a silvery trail through the dust, missing Haku's temple by inches. It struck the knife clean out of the enemy's hands, and took off the top joint of the ninja's middle finger.

Blood sprayed over Haku's shoulder. The knife hit the dust and bounced. Haku finished turning, one leg sweeping the Stone ninja's legs out from under her and the other hand coming up and slamming her down, directly into the ground.

Sakura breathed out, the whole moment crashing into her at once, and time resumed. Haku came down on top of the enemy ninja like a sack of bricks, knocking the rest of her breath out, and pinned her there, wrapping around her like a constrictive snake.

Sakura looked around. The ninja was bleeding. That meant it wasn't a clone. That one of the three was definitely down.

"Thank you," Haku said quietly. She slid a needle into the shinobi's neck as she struggled beneath her, and the girl calmed down a little, slowly stilling.

"Of course," Sakura said, scanning the dust. "Did you just…?" The dust was slowly clearing, settling to the forest floor.

"Just paralyzed," Haku said. "So long as it's removed properly."

Sakura nodded, sure that another attack would come soon.

' _Why 'of course?''_

She didn't consider it. She just said it. That's all there was to it.

"Kabuto?" Haku called out, and there wasn't an immediate answer. "Suigetsu?" She must have thought that having a hostage put them at an advantage, Sakura thought. She was right.

"Naruto!" Sakura echoed her. "Sasuke! Are you out there?"

"Here!" Naruto stumbled out of the dust, with Kabuto at his side. He looked at the shinobi Haku was standing up from, and at the blood on Haku's haori. "You alright?"

"Yeah," Sakura said. "It's her blood." Naruto looked a little surprised at that. The dust continued to settle; it was still hard to see, but Sakura could make out the great tree, lying on its side next to the river.

There was a figure on top of it. Sakura squinted, and Naruto followed her line of sight. "Sasuke?"

The figure gave her a thumbs up and a gust of wind whipped the dust between them away, revealing her teammate. Sasuke was standing on tall, atop another ninja. He had one foot on the small of the Stone shinobi's back, pinning both the ninja's hands beneath it.

"I've got this one," Sasuke said calmly, his voice carrying over the river. Sakura walked a couple steps towards him and glanced down into the water, now clogged with mud and dust.

"Where's the last one then?" she muttered, and then the river grinned at her.

"I was waiting for that," it burbled, and Suigetsu's smiling face surfaced, along with another sputtering shinobi. The last one was a boy, and he gasped and gagged, coughing up mud and thrashing as the river kept him captive.

"You always were too dramatic, Suigetsu," Kabuto said with a grin, walking up besides Sakura. "I guess we got them all then."

"Man," Naruto groused. "So we just fought clones? That's lame." He must have been talking about whatever he and Kabuto had done in the dust.

"They couldn't have won their fights if those clones were harassing them," Kabuto said, and Naruto glanced at him. "I wouldn't worry too much."

"I guess," Naruto said, looking a little doubtful. The ninja Sasuke was pinning on the other side of the river squirmed, twisting her head to face him, her long hair whipping with the motion: that was the one that had created all the clones.

"You bastard," she snarled. "Didn't get enough glory?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and stamped down on her, and the girl coughed, still glaring at them.

"So you were targeting us," he said, and the girl grinned up at him from the corner of her mouth. "Did you really think you could go after the Hokage's son like that?"

"Depends what you mean," the girl sneered. "Kill… no. The Yellow Flash wouldn't be happy with that." She looked back at Naruto with a disgusted expression. "But teaching him a lesson. That was definitely possible, right?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Guess not," he said, and before the ninja could do more than look offended he punched her in the back of the head, instantly knocking her out. Sasuke stepped back and picked up the shinobi's unconscious body, leaping over the river and landing in front of Sakura.

"Looks like we won," he said matter of factly, and Sakura didn't know what to do besides nod. The final stone shinobi was spat out of the river and landed next to them with a thud, still coughing up water, and Suigetsu slithered up the bank towards them, reforming into a boy near the top of the embankment.

"Nice," the boy grinned, his teeth too sharp as always. He kicked the prone ninja, rolling him over, and the boy gagged, finally clearing his throat.

"Shit," he coughed. "I told them it was a bad idea. Two teams at once..."

"You were the one responsible for that earth wall, right?" Kabuto asked him, and the boy nodded. "That was really impressive." He was kneeling over the girl Haku had paralyzed with her senbon, green light playing over her hand. "Your teammates are both pretty beat up. I've stopped this one's bleeding. The other's just unconscious. You see this?" He pointed at the needle sticking out of the girl's neck, and the boy mutely nodded. He was slowly rising into a crouch, deliberately trying to project at little threat as possible. His dark eyes played over each of them in turn, fixing on Sakura's sword.

There was still blood on it, she realized. Standing there, covered in dust and her sword stained in blood, she must have looked intimidating. It felt familiar.

Like the merchants, she realized. Like the blood. But this was a shinobi, not a civilian. How could they be looking at _her_ like that?

"This is _just_ paralyzing her," Kabuto said, making the irony of his wording clear. "If you pull it straight out, _slowly_ , she'll be perfectly fine; a little numb for a while, but no permanent damage. Do you understand?"

The boy nodded again. Behind him, Suigetsu frowned.

"Do you have a scroll?" he asked, and the Stone ninja shook his head.

"We didn't start with one," he said. "We were gonna grab one a while ago, but that team from Sand nabbed the team before we could-"

"Okay, okay, I don't want your life story," Suigetsu held his hands up mockingly. "You should just get out of here then. You're too hurt to continue." He grinned, showing even more of his teeth. "We'll let you off this time. But if you come after us again, we'll hurt you even worse. Get it?"

"Yeah." The boy was shivering. How old was he, Sakura wondered? Maybe fourteen, fifteen? Older than her, but not by much. "Got it."

"Cool." Suigetsu jerked his thumb. "Then get out of here, you punk."

The boy silently gathered up his two teammates, carrying them over both shoulders, and leapt away, heading south and higher into the forest. Suigetsu called after him.

"And hey!" he said. "When you get back to your hole in the ground, tell your folks that they shouldn't be worried about some Yellow Flash! That kinda thing is gone in a flash: they need to keep an eye on the Nation of Rain!"

The boy shot them a hateful look, and then he was gone, disappearing into the dimness of the forest.

"Well, that was fun." Sasuke didn't seem to know what to say. "Thanks for the help, Suigetsu."

"My pleasure," the boy responded with his perpetual smile. "You should have seen his face when I grabbed him. That shit was hilarious."

"That went well, considering," Kabuto said.

"Well, their mistake going after Sakura and Haku first," Naruto said, smiling at Sakura. She felt her stomach flip. "They must have thought they were the easiest targets; you really showed them."

Had she? She'd killed a couple clones with her sword, but besides that, Sakura hadn't felt like she'd done much. Naruto had taken more than a dozen out with a single jutsu. Still, she'd ignored enough compliments for one day.

"Thanks, Naruto." She smiled. "You were amazing. I didn't know you'd gotten that jutsu to that level."

"I didn't either," he admitted with an uneasy grin. "But when I saw all those girls trying to stab you, I guess… I got a little angry." He rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't think it would be that big an explosion."

Sakura didn't know what to say to that, and they fell into an awkward silence.

"Well," Haku said, dusting herself off. She glanced at the blood on her haori and swept it off, carrying it folded in her arms. "We should continue."

"Yeah!" Naruto said, seemingly grateful for the words. "We should get going: we've gotta be close!" The sun was setting behind Sakura, throwing him into sharp relief.

"It'll be dark soon," she noted. How long ago had it been noon? They couldn't have been walking for that many hours, could they? Had she really lost track of time so easily? "Maybe we should stop for the night."

"You think?" Naruto said, and Sasuke nodded.

"Most creatures hunt at night," he said. "There are a lot of predators out there, and other teams besides. They gave us forty-eight hours: it won't hurt to use some of it."

"I agree," Kabuto said. "I wouldn't mind resting before we reach the Tower. There may be another test when we get there. I wouldn't put it past the examiners to push us right into it, to punish people who rushed ahead."

Sakura hadn't considered that, but it definitely seemed possible for the Exam to punish impatience. Sometimes, being a ninja meant being impossibly patient, waiting in one place for days at a time; that was the best explanation for the test giving them two days to cover ten kilometers.

The Forest was dangerous, but not _that_ dangerous.

"It's a good idea," Haku said. Sakura looked back at her, wondering. In hindsight, she wasn't sure if Haku had needed saving from that final Stone ninja. After Sakura had struck, she'd counterattacked instantly, and pinned the enemy in a moment. Her speed and reflexes were incredible.

' _She could have saved herself.'_

Was she just being paranoid again? Or simply putting herself down? Sakura wondered if she really had just saved someone and simply couldn't bring herself to accept it.

She didn't know. As the others debated on where to camp out, Sakura glanced back at the setting sun, its light barely visible through the thick trees, and wondered how much she could trust herself.

###

They ended up farther up the river, in the canopy once again. The January sun set so fast that by the time they were arranged, it was already almost completely dark. Under the canopy of the Forest of Death, night was transformed into something infinitely blacker. The forest came to life as well; below, Sakura could hear huge creatures rampaging around, feasting on one another. Being on the floor right now would be anything but pleasant.

They'd decided to take shifts watching over the others, laid out across the branches and resting on their head on whatever was convenient. Naruto and Sasuke were both using their packs, with the knives removed and laid alongside them; Kabuto and Suigetsu had rolled up a spare shirt each and were using them as pillows. Shinobi were trained to be able to sleep in all sorts of conditions, but Sakura was still surprised at how readily her teammates had fallen asleep. They must have really trusted her to watch over them.

' _You were being stupid. Like usual. You're their teammate. You're their friend. Why were you worried, stupid?'_

Sakura looked out into the dark, pacing silently around the branch. If any of the other teams were moving at night, even if the pitch black they'd be a tempting target. Haku was on the other side of the branch, and as Sakura paced near her, she glanced at what the other ninja was doing.

Haku had her canteen out and her haori laid over her lap, and was gently moving her hands in a circle over the garment. As Sakura watched in astonishment, the water from her canteen swirled out, defying gravity, and slipped back and forth over the haori, gradually soaking up the dried blood.

Circle, swish, circle, swish. Haku directed the water like a composer, washing up all the blood and leaving the haori spotless and black once again. She fluttered her fingers, and the miniscule clumps of dried blood in the water fell out as though they were suddenly lead. The water slipped back into the canteen as silently as it emerged, and Haku put the haori back on, tugging it into place.

"That's incredible," Sakura said quietly, and the girl glanced back at her.

"Just a chakra control trick," she said. "I'm sure you could learn it."

"If you say so," Sakura said doubtfully. She paused. "Haku…"

"What?" Haku asked, and Sakura shook her head. Asking was pointless. It was like she'd thought. She was being stupid.

"What's with the clouds?" she asked instead, and the girl cocked her head. "The red clouds. Did you make that design yourself? It's pretty."

Haku laughed. "No, I didn't make it myself. It's the mark of the Akatsuki."

"The Akatsuki?" Sakura asked. Red Dawn: it meant nothing to her.

"Sit, if you'd like," Haku gestured, and Sakura did, putting her back to the darkness Haku was watching and keeping her teammates in her line of sight. "The Akatsuki is the group that rules the Nation of Rain. They overthrew the old government some time ago."

"My sensei told me that," Sakura said, and Haku nodded. "But you're not that old. You couldn't have been part of _that_ Akatsuki."

"No," Haku acknowledged. "But they're willing to accept new members. People who believe in their mission. In that way, wearing an Akatsuki cloak," she chuckled, lifting the cloth off her shoulder slightly, "or a haori, tells the people of Rain that you're devoted."

"Devoted to what?" Sakura asked. This sounded like the Will of Fire, almost. Every village had something different driving them, she thought. The Akatsuki must have been the village of Rain's.

"If you want to know..." Haku smiled, vibrant in the dark. "I'll be happy to tell you."


	16. Conversation

Akatsuki

I think I'd have to start near the beginning, or else I'll sound a little strange.

Amegakure isn't just a village anymore. It's a Nation now: the Nation of Rain. Your sensei told you that? That's good.

Yes, the Daimyo was overthrown. Rain's government and the leadership of Amegakure became one and the same. It is unusual; everyone thought so. You'd never dream of replacing the Daimyo, I imagine.

That's because your Daimyo has served you well. The Daimyo isn't elected; is the Hokage? I'd heard that somewhere. Ah, how interesting. The village must be truly unified, to trust its leadership to democracy like that.

The Daimyo isn't elected but he is still in a way your servant, in the same way anyone who is held at the mercy of others is their servant. I'm sorry, perhaps that's a bit harsh. What I'm trying to say, the Daimyo of the Land of Fire has worked together well with Konohagakure and the rest of his country; he's done his best to keep the people of the country as safe, happy, and wealthy as possible. The village is a big part of that, naturally. Hidden Villages are enormous parts of their country's economies: I'm sure you know that.

The Daimyo of the Land of Rain wasn't like that.

Did you know that during the last three great wars, Rain was a central battlefield in every one? I know, it's surprising, but when you look at a map, it makes sense. It's set directly between Fire and Earth, like most of the minor nations and villages. I'm not sure if it's on purpose or not, but it's no accident that that's the case for all the major nations; they're all separated from their neighbors by buffers like the Land of Rain.

Yes, there's quite a grudge between Stone and the Leaf. I was surprised to see it today. I'd heard about it, but seeing that hatred for myself… it made me sad. Naruto's father did terrible things to them, I'm sure, but it was a war; the goal is to do terrible things to one another, after all. Still… how many lives do you think he ended, to grow that kind of hatred in children who never met him? It's frightening. Naruto doesn't seem like him… he doesn't seem like what I would expect from the son of a Kage. I guess I don't have a reference.

You're right. I guess it is that simple. He's kind. It's an admirable trait. Sasuke seems similar.

Where was I?

Right. The Daimyo of Rain wasn't like yours. He did nothing to protect his people. Maybe you're right, and he just couldn't. Time after time, for decades, Rain was ravaged by armies that had no business with it, only with each other. That was what started the Akatsuki.

Oh, so you know the founders? Yes, Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko, our Kage. They were trained by a shinobi from the Leaf, who gave them the power to achieve peace. He left, and they took over the Village Hidden in the Rain some time later.

But to their surprise, that didn't fix the problem. The previous ruler of Amegakure had been a cruel man, that Hanzo the Salamander. The Akatsuki had assumed that removing him would end the conflicts inside their border, that they would be able to keep Rain safe from Amegakure, but nothing changed. Eventually, they determined it was the fault of the government of Rain. It was weak, and could not keep other ninja from entering its lands and killing its people.

So for the good of Rain, they imprisoned the Daimyo. Killing him would be cruel; he lives a comfortable life, but he no longer has any control over it. It makes some sense, doesn't it? I thought so. I made the same face you are when I heard this story for the first time; it seemed silly to say the country's strife was caused by its government, when the other villages were…

Yes, Konoha included. No. No, I don't think so. It would be silly of me to say something like that. It's the rational decision for a village to do its best to conduct its wars outside of its home country. Doing otherwise makes them look weak, and risks harming fellow citizens of Fire. Konoha isn't to blame for fighting in Rain; the circumstances that brought it there are.

The circumstances? That's a complicated question. I'm too young to answer that in full, unfortunately. I guess I would call it… the world. The system? The Shinobi System, you're right, that's a good name for it. You cut right to the heart of it.

The Shinobi System, then. Have you ever thought about what exactly your job is, Sakura?

…

Maybe that's a rude question. We can stop if you'd like. I overstepped.

You're sure?

Alright, my apologies.

Helping people is a good answer. Maybe it's what shinobi should be. If that's the kind of shinobi you _want_ to be, you should strive for it with all your strength.

But I think what most shinobi are trained for isn't that noble. Even me, talking about it now… at its core, everything is driven by supply and demand. That's how things have always worked: the people who succeed are the people who provide something that other people need, or think they need.

The thing that shinobi supply is…

Violence, yes. Again, you got right to the heart. You can see I'm struggling: I couldn't have put it that simply. The thing that shinobi supply is violence. Even when we help people, that's almost always how we helped them. By putting violence somewhere necessary.

Your first C-Rank?

…

That's a good example, yes. You and your team helped those merchants by killing their captor. How frightening. It's no wonder you picked up a sword after that. That was something only a shinobi could have done. No one else would have stood a chance.

Now, how can I say this. The relationship between the shinobi and the Daimyo is two sides of the same coin. Shinobi provide violence, but not all of it, because the Daimyo need to hold onto some of their own to maintain their independence: that's why all of them have armies, militias, and elite shinobi guards. The Daimyo provide stability, but not all of it, because the health of their nation is tied very closely to the prosperity of the hidden villages. In that way, it's a kind of symbiosis. The two sides make each other stronger, and both prosper.

Ha! Exactly. That's why we're always taught to work together. Teamwork makes everything stronger.

But when one side of that relationship isn't holding up its contract, as it were, the whole thing grows rotten. That's what happened in Rain. The partnership broke down and failed to provide the country with any security or stability: the shinobi, and innocent civilians, were taking on all of the violence with none of the promised benefits. They were just being ground down. That's why the Akatsuki removed him. But those circumstances weren't unique. They could easily be repeated.

Well, maybe I'm being cynical, but… the only service shinobi can offer is violence, or the threat of violence. That means any system that is centered around ninja, like our current one, operates entirely on an exchange of violence. It's an economy of violence, even if money and pride are the motivators. But the problem with such a system, the Shinobi System, as you put it, is that no one wants to be the ones receiving violence. They only want to give it to others.

I mentioned earlier that Konoha was 'correct' to fight its wars outside its borders. The same goes for all of the major villages. Fighting in your own country means risking your countrymen, and damaging your village's reputation. Most of the great wars were fought in those minor border countries like Rain. The Land of Rivers, Grass, Tea, Whirlpools… they all became battlegrounds time and time again, just like Rain. No other country has had something like the Akatsuki... but that's probably because it took several truly incredible shinobi in the right place at the right time to make it happen.

This happens because, like we've been saying, violence has to be exported. No, you wouldn't want to find it at the store! It's something that the villages can only give to other countries, or else they'll seem to be failing. I was born in the Land of Water… yes, I'm like Kabuto. I lost my parents when I was young. Water is a larger country, but it was trampled in the Second War and many of its citizens grew to loathe and fear shinobi. Despite that, one saved me and took me away.

His name was Zabuza. Yes, he's in the Land of Rain now as well. He went there looking for… vengeance, maybe. Money, mostly. But he found something else, so we stayed there.

It was a strange relationship. But he saved my life, and taught me how to survive. I'll always be grateful to him, even if… well, I won't bore you with that.

The point is, shinobi travel to other countries, spread violence, and create instability. My, it sounds so horrible when I put it that way. That instability is supposed to be countered by the Daimyo, but in some cases it grows beyond their control. When that happens, people look for other solutions. Some flee the country entirely. Most of the time, the minor villages and countries throw themselves into service to the major powers, hoping for protection. That wasn't something Rain ever did; perhaps Hanzo was too proud for it.

Is that so? I wouldn't be surprised. It seems in his character.

Well, most villages aren't like Rain. The Land of Rivers, for example: they've been Konoha's allies since the Second War. They were kept from being trampled in the Third. That's the power of the Five Villages. Right now, countries like them are relatively safe. But Rain, and perhaps Frost… They're stuck between the Leaf, Stone, and Cloud. All powerful villages, all with deep grudges. If another war ever starts, they'll be the battlegrounds, I'm sure.

No. I hope not. I pray not. I don't ever want to see a war. That's why I joined the Akatsuki at all. I've been babbling. At its heart, all Akatsuki wants is to prevent war. To keep peace.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

…

What do you mean by a contradiction?

Well, I suppose that's correct. The Daimyo want the villages to be as strong as possible, but not so strong they grow out of control. That would upset the contract between them, if the village could provide all the necessary violence and stability for the country, as Amegakure can.

Oh, without a doubt.

It's a delicate balance. I don't want to sound rude, but… the Land of Fire isn't the most powerful nation in the world because it grows the most food, or produces the most goods. It's because it can export the most violence. Or nowadays, the most threat of violence. Because Konoha is in such a strong position.

I know, but that's what being shinobi is. Your Hokage is the only living ninja marked as "Flee on Sight," you must know that. That definition alone is all you need; Konoha is the mightiest because it is the most frightening. I'm not trying to-

I'm right?

I thought you'd be-

Okay. If you say so. Do you want to…

…

Why do you think there are only five great villages, Sakura?

It's not just because it's a convenient number. Each of the countries grew with their villages, absorbing more territory as their shinobi grew stronger. The Land of Fire is so large because Konoha has been so strong for so long. The same goes for Lightning, Mist, and Earth. Only Wind has remained mostly the same, and that's probably because of its deserts. No one else is confident enough to live there.

Yes, I'm worried about that Sand team as well. I can't picture them working with others. That boy from Stone mentioned them… I wonder what he meant by 'nabbed.'

I suppose we'll find out tomorrow for sure.

What I'm trying to say is that the five villages, on purpose or not, won't allow anyone to rise to challenge them. I don't mean that in a menacing way. I'm just saying that they have a monopoly on their violence, and there's only so much to go around.

There have been other villages like Rain, in the past. Not the Akatsuki, I mean. Minor villages that grew strong enough to gain acknowledgement from the others. We're growing every year; I'm sure we've been mentioned.

Well, I guess that's gratifying in a way. But it's also what I'm talking about. The last was Uzoshiogakure, the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools. It was ruled by the Uzumaki, but they grew too strong for their neighbor's liking. Before they were destroyed, they were between Water and Lightning; the two villages allied to decimate them. That was the end of the Second Ninja War.

Konoha was their ally, but there was nothing they could do, fighting Stone and Sand at the same time. Yes, it must have been terrible. There weren't many surviving Uzumaki, but they fled across the world, many of them to Konoha. Perhaps you've met some of them.

No? That's surprising. Well, maybe now that you know of them you'll notice them.

…

I don't think things can continue. I've talked about this with people before, but you… you've made me think about it more, I guess.

The whole system, it's evil. It exploits and destroys people. There has to be a better way, right?

Right now, I… maybe it's because it's so dark. This forest really is incredible. I've never seen anything like it. Trees like these.

...

I feel like we're moving steadily towards something horrible.

Each war has been more terrible than the last. Shinobi are only growing stronger and more numerous. Any system like this naturally creates tension. People and nations grind together, competing constantly.

Maybe that's what the Daimyo want. For us all to come together in one last great clash and destroy each other. To reset the board to when they didn't have to worry about balancing the villages and their countries, to keep shinobi in the thrall of unworthy people forever...

You're right, that's paranoid. I shouldn't say it like that. It's not that they're consciously creating the situation. It's just… how it is. Like gravity. Like any competitive economy. The violence just grows and grows.

I'm sorry. I'm tired. I didn't mean to be so melodramatic.

What am I devoted to? I never did give a straight answer, did I.

To peace, I guess. I said that at least. To creating a world where no one will desire war. I just want people to be safe. To not feel like they have to fight and kill to get what they want. Maybe that's naive, but I think so long as I hold to that goal…

We'll be able to accomplish something. Exactly. Better to try than to concede. That's what Zabuza always told me. That you only lose when you give up. When he was training me he taught me that shinobi were tools, but Rain showed me that was a lie. A lie I think he told himself, to keep himself… not happy, but sane. Shinobi are people that sometimes make tools of themselves. That's what I try to keep in my heart.

I refuse to be a tool.

…

Thanks for talking with me. I haven't…

It's nice, sometimes. You're smart, Sakura. Maybe you could look at all this and come up with a better answer than me. I'm just going to keep the people precious to me safe, and follow the Amekage wherever he leads me. That's all I think I can do.

…

We should get the next shift, yeah. Naruto and Kabuto, I think. Let's give Suigetsu and Sasuke more time to rest: they took both those Stone ninja down, after all.

Good idea.

My secret?

You really want to know?

Oh, I'm a boy.

…

...

Goodnight.


	17. The Tower

What Comes First

When they set out at dawn, Sakura's head was buzzing with half-remembered words and hardly formed ideas. Her conversation with Haku the night before hadn't been long, maybe twenty minutes at the very most, but she'd never experienced something like it.

The boy (how was he a _boy_ , it wasn't _fair_ ) was probably a little crazy, she thought. Everyone in Rain might have been, if they were led by people who believed the kind of things Haku did. Nevertheless, for the first time in her life Sakura had stepped back. Not just from herself, which had happened several times now, but from her team, from being a ninja, from living in Konoha, from everything that her life had been built on, and looked over it with new eyes.

Haku might have been a little crazy, but she couldn't tell him anything he'd said was wrong. He might have been lying, but everything he'd said had _sounded_ correct, hit a chord of truth on a deep level inside her. It had reached down and taken her dissatisfaction, her uncertainty, and her fear and given a shape and a name to all of it. The Shinobi System. You live in a world ruled by an economy of violence, Sakura. Why _wouldn't_ you be afraid?

"You alright?" Naruto asked her, and Sakura blinked and shook her head, trying to get her thoughts straight. She looked over at her teammate, who was watching her with a friendly grin as usual. Did Naruto think about the kind of things Haku had talked about, smaller villages being crushed by the tension between the larger ones, how many people his father had killed to bring Konoha peace and safety, even though he was the closest one to it of any of them? Sakura doubted it; if he did, could he possibly smile like that?

"I'm fine, Naruto." She smiled at him. It had felt like she was being carried away in a flurry of exhaustion for a moment, but Naruto had grounded her. She'd barely slept. The forest was loud and dark, and her mind louder and darker. "Thanks for asking."

"'Course," Naruto said, looking back. He and Sakura were at the front of the group: the team from Rain and Sasuke were following behind them. They'd been moving through the forest for some time now, silently rushing from tree to tree in a blur of green and grey, and the sun was finally making its way into the sky. "So… Haku's really a boy, huh?"

"I know," Sakura acknowledged. "I couldn't believe it either when he told me."

"I definitely didn't see that coming," Naruto laughed. "I mean, he's so… the way he dresses..." He flushed and struggled for the words as Sakura watched, trying not to laugh at her teammate's embarrassment. "Well, you know."

"Yeah," Sakura said, looking back at Haku. The ninja from Rain caught her eye and nodded, and she wondered what he was thinking. The same things as her? No, probably not. What Haku had told her was just normal for him. He wouldn't think so much about it, the same way Sakura had never thought about why Konoha was so much stronger than the other villages. "He's a little strange."

They had to be getting close to the center of the forest now. Sakura was glad they'd stopped for the night, even if she had barely been able to sleep. The training ground was quiet now, and the morning sun was bright and warm even through the thick canopy. It made her feel more confident.

"I see it," Sasuke said from somewhere behind them. Sakura strained to peer through the canopy, and realized her teammate was right. It was almost hidden behind all the trees and leaves, but less than half a mile away, the tower was coming into sight. It was enormous and dull red, like a spike stuck into the middle of the forest.

"We have to be extra careful here," Kabuto said, drawing up alongside Sakura and Naruto. "If I was on a team that didn't have a scroll, I'd be waiting at the tower for teams that did. This will probably be the trickiest part."

He was right, Sakura thought as they drew closer to the tower. If there were any teams waiting for them here, they'd be the most desperate. The tower grew larger and larger, and Sakura steeled herself, her hand resting on her sword.

But nothing happened.

No attack came.

There was a clearing around the tower, about a hundred meters of carefully maintained grass and a moat, and both teams reached it without incident, jumping into the high branches around it and looking around suspiciously, waiting for an ambush, an angry yell, something.

There wasn't a sound. The clearing was empty, and there was no one to greet Team Seven or their allies.

It still felt like they were being watched.

"I don't get it," Naruto said. "We can't be the only ones who made it."

"Maybe," Suigetsu said, looking around. "But I sure as hell don't see anyone. If someone's waiting to ambush us, they're being super sneaky about it."

"I don't see anyone either," Sasuke confirmed, his red eyes whirling and scanning the whole clearing. He was crouched low on his branch, one hand touched down to the tree. He was obviously ready to leap into action at the slightest sign of movement.

How could that be possible? Sakura's hand tightened around her sword. They couldn't be the first ones arriving. Where were the other teams?

"We just have to enter the tower," Haku said calmly, pointing to a set of double doors set in the building, the closest entrance to them. "Whether we're attacked or not won't matter, so long as we make it inside."

"You're right." Sakura surprised herself by stepping forward, unsheathing her sword. "Let's just go. Right now. If we're being watched, we shouldn't give them any more time."

"Good idea," Sasuke said, standing up. "I'll lead."

He leapt off the tree and sped towards the tower, tearing a path through the grass, and Sakura and Naruto followed a heartbeat later. The team from Rain was right behind them, all six of them forming a blinding fast spear thrown directly at the center of the tower.

Sakura held her sword low at her side as they ran, expecting another attack at any moment, maybe even from the Stone team once more. But again, nothing happened. They crossed the final hundred meters to the tower in less than four seconds, the short time stretched out to something grotesque by the tension rippling through Sakura's body. Sasuke reached the door, the first of them, and tore it open; the five of them flung themselves past it, inside the tower.

Sakura skidded to a stop and turned, waiting for Sasuke to follow. The door was still open. Sasuke was standing there, half-visible.

But he wasn't moving.

"Sasuke!" Naruto hissed, scrambling to his feet. "Close the door!"

Her teammate was staring at something, stock still. Sakura looked past him, her heart loud in her ears, and saw what had pinned him in place.

There was a man watching them from the branches they'd leapt from. Tall, with dark hair. His eyes were red.

He gave them a casual wave, and Sasuke flinched.

"He was following." Sasuke's voice was low and dark; his hand curled into a fist. "I was right."

"Sasuke." Sakura heard her voice tremble, and she hated the sound of it. "Please-"

"Close the door," Naruto demanded. He stomped forward, seizing Sasuke's shoulders and glaring up at their pursuer. "Right now."

He spun his teammate back, and Sasuke slammed the door shut behind him, his whole body shaking in rage.

"What-?" Haku started to ask, before Sasuke stormed past him.

The Uchiha was gritting his teeth. "Let's go."

"Who was that?" Kabuto asked. "There was a man out there."

"It's-!" Sasuke snapped, before taking a deep breath. He closed his eyes, fists unclenching. "It's nothing."

"It's another ninja," Haku said. "It can't be nothing."

Sasuke could be difficult to read, but Sakura could tell he was about to say something stupid. Naruto started to say something, but she was quicker than him.

"He was following us," she cut in, stepping forward and meeting Sasuke's glance. He pursed his lips and nodded, the motion so small only someone who was looking for it could have seen it. "We weren't sure of it until just now, but we suspected. He was the one who broke Sasuke's arm."

"He had the same kind of eyes," Suigetsu said, a little subdued. At least, the most subdued Sakura had heard him. "Another Uchiha?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said brusquely. "It's my business." He shook his head. "Let's just finish this stupid test."

"He's not going to come after us?" Haku asked. "He followed us all this way; he'll just wait outside?"

"Who knows." How could Sasuke possibly be feeling, Sakura wondered, with his brother just outside? Sakura couldn't wrap her head around it, but it was obvious that her teammates were both paralyzed. Itachi could trivially kill them all, that much was evident from their first encounter, but he'd been content to follow them. If they turned and attacked, they'd just get beaten again. They were totally at his mercy.

"Naruto," she murmured, drawing closer to him. "We need to find someone. We need to tell someone. There must be some proctors here."

Naruto hummed in agreement, turning around and surveying the room the door had led to. It was a long hall, with balconies running high up alongside either wall. At the end of the hall, there were sentences emblazoned on the walls in huge bright font.

"Huh," Naruto said, looking up at the kanji. "'If you lack Heaven, seek wisdom and prepare yourself. If you lack Earth, seek strength and better yourself.'" He scratched his chin. "'These words will guide a person's extremes.'"

"Those are the words of the Third Hokage." All of them, Leaf and Rain alike, spun towards the sudden voice in surprise. There was a ninja up on the balcony to their left: she'd appeared silently and from nowhere.

Sakura blinked. The woman had brown eyes and purple hair, and was wearing a thick brown coat, with a scarf wrapped around her neck. It wasn't that cold outside; why was she that bundled up? The shinobi leapt down off the balcony, landing without a sound before them.

"He passed them along to us, so we could-" she started to say, before Sasuke cut her off.

"Itachi Uchiha is outside," he said, and the woman froze.

"What?" she asked, her voice sudden and sharp, and Sasuke nodded.

"He attacked me at the beginning of the exam, and followed us through the forest," he said. "He watched us enter the tower. He hasn't come after us yet."

The woman cursed, so viciously that Sakura almost flinched, and turned her back on them, disappearing deeper into the tower. Both teams glanced at each other, not sure what to say next.

"Does that mean we pass?" Suigetsu asked, and Naruto shrugged.

"Probably," he said, sitting down with his legs crossed under him. "I hope so. Let's just wait. I don't wanna get disqualified on accident."

That was a pretty good idea, Sakura thought, and she sat down next to Naruto to show her agreement. She wasn't tired anymore; now, it was like her whole body was an electrical current.

They'd made it to the tower. Whether it was Sasuke's brother, the other teams, or something else entirely, they had to be ready for whatever came next.

###

Team Seven and the team from Rain waited for twenty minutes before someone found them. It wasn't a proctor.

"Sakura!" Sakura's head jerked up at the voice, and she found Tenten beaming at her down from the same balcony the proctor had watched them from. "You guys passed!"

"Tenten?" Sakura pulled herself to her feet; Sasuke was chatting with Suigetsu and Kabuto, and Naruto was playing some kind of game with Haku that involved holding his hands out and trying not to get them slapped. So far, he'd lost every time, but that just made him more determined. They all watched her get up. The Rain ninja looked at Tenten with some interest, and she looked back at them, obviously confused.

"Rain?" she asked. "Huh."

"Where's everyone else?" Sakura asked, and Tenten leaned against the railing, smiling down at her.

"Neji and Lee are sparring: I got bored and came to see if anyone else had made it," she said, cocking her head. "Why're they here too?" she asked, motioning at the Rain shinobi.

"We decided to team up," Haku said, and Tenten's eyebrow shot up in surprise.

"Team up?" she said, and Sakura nodded, a little confused.

"Of course," she said. "That's what the examiner said, right? That you couldn't present two scrolls by themselves. You had to work with another team to present them both at once."

Tenten blinked. "Huh," she said again. Sakura could tell she couldn't decide whether to be amused or impressed. "We didn't think of that."

"Whadya mean?" Naruto asked, before yelping as Haku slapped his hands again. Haku giggled, sounding just as feminine as he looked. "How'd you pass then?"

"We presented three," Tenten said, and Sasuke grunted. He was still moody; understandably so, Sakura thought. She was impressed he was even talking to anyone, let alone the Rain ninja.

"They took that?" he asked, and Tenten laughed.

"Yeah," she said. "Of course they did. That's what Choza said, right?"

Sakura felt her stomach sink at her friend's words. She looked around at her team and her new friends.

She'd misinterpreted the rules, and so had the team from Rain. Sakura had assumed everyone in the staging area had been looking at one another in search of allies, but she saw now that she'd been projecting. They'd been sizing up the competition. Only Haku and his teammates had come to the same conclusion as her. Would they even still pass?

"So, you took three?" Kabuto asked, and Tenten nodded. "From other villages, I assume. Who else made it?"

Tenten's face grew a little more serious, and she jumped down off the balcony, landing in front of Sakura.

"Only one other," she said, and Sakura jerked back in surprise. She heard Sasuke mutter something under his breath.

"Which one?" Haku asked, and Tenten regarded him cautiously. Haku wasn't her friend, Sakura realized. Haku wasn't even Sakura's friend to her: Tenten didn't know about the time they'd spent together. To Tenten, and probably every other ninja in Konoha, Haku was just a suspicious foriegn ninja from an upstart village with delusions of grandeur.

No wonder Tenten was looking at him like that. Wouldn't Sakura have given him the same kind of look, if she were in Tenten's place?

"The team from Sand," she said, and at Sakura's side, Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Gaara of the Desert, and his two flunkies. They arrived with five scrolls." Tenten's face twitched, almost pulling into a sneer before she controlled herself, letting out a frustrated sigh. "They hunted down all the other Leaf teams, and everyone else who got in their way."

"Shit." Naruto started pacing. "Shit. Was everyone okay?"

"I dunno," Tenten said, looking and sounding as grim as Sakura had ever seen her. "But I'm glad you guys are safe." She stepped forward and clapped her hand down on Sakura's shoulder. "You get a chance to use that sword?" she asked with a grin, and Sakura nodded.

"We got attacked by a team from Stone," she said. "They were after Naruto." She shook her head. "Is that why there was no else at the tower? Everyone else has been disqualified?"

"Pretty much," Tenten confirmed. "We got here first, and then the Sand team showed up near the end of the day." She glanced at Naruto. "They seemed really confident you'd show up."

"That freak's got it out for me," Naruto grumbled. "We were keeping a low profile: he probably figured I'd pass, and that he could come after me in the next test."

"Makes sense," Tenten agreed. "Well, you'll just have to disappoint him." She frowned. "They're still in the building, but they're keeping to themselves for now. I'd stay out of their way."

"Sounds good to me," Naruto said, a little subdued. Sakura didn't know what to say. She wanted to comfort him, but what could she say? She'd seen the glint of madness in Gaara's eyes as he'd told Naruto they were both sons of Yondaime, that that meant he was destined to kill her teammate. In the face of that reality, what could her words do?

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke said, saying what Sakura couldn't. "You can take that freak."

"He took out at least five other teams," Naruto pointed out. "All of our classmates, and probably a ton of other people if no other teams made it to the tower. He's gotta be something crazy, to manage that."

"Or maybe it was his teammates," Sakura pointed out, and Naruto marginally relaxed. "Sasuke's right: you shouldn't worry about that right now."

"Yeah," Naruto said, still not sounding entirely sure. "I guess."

They stayed like that for a moment, pondering the surreality of the situation.

"Is there anyone else in the tower?" Sasuke eventually asked, and Tenten shook her head.

"Nah," she said, turning and starting to walk away. She looked over her shoulder expectantly, and both Team Seven and the team from Rain started following. "There were a couple proctors, but they all left about twenty minutes ago."

"No doubt thanks to your spooky friend," Suigetsu laughed, and Tenten looked back curiously as she led them through a maze of halls and stairs.

"Friend?" she asked, and Sasuke closed his eyes.

"A rogue ninja," he said, and Tenten's face just grew more curious. "He attacked me, and followed us through the forest."

"A rogue ninja?" Tenten asked, sounding a little excited. "Why'd he follow you guys?" Her gaze shifted to Naruto. That was the obvious reason.

"It doesn't matter," Sasuke said, and Tenten gave him a dubious look.

"Well… I guess that explains where everyone went," she said, turning a final corner and opening a double-door. As she stepped through, there was a loud _thwack_. Sakura peered past her friend: the room was a small dojo, and Rock Lee was laid out on the ground, rolling back and forth and clutching at his face.

"Oh, Tenten." Neji looked up, shaking his hand out. Lee stopped rolling and peered up at them between two fingers, before springing to his feet.

"Ah!" he cried, his nose swollen and one of his eyes black. Neither Neji or Lee were ever ones to hold back, Sakura mused, even in a spar. Neji had several nasty bruises himself, mostly on his arms: punching Lee was a painful proposition, even for the genius Hyuuga. "Naruto! Sasuke! Sakura!" He glanced past them, to the Rain ninja behind them, and took them in stride. "Shinobi of Rain! You made it!"

"Hey Lee." Naruto grinned, stepping around Sakura. She glanced at him; his moodiness had vanished. Even if it was possible they hadn't passed the test, they were safe now. "Looks like you're having fun."

"I lost again!" Lee declared. "But I'm getting closer!"

"Course you are," Naruto said. He gave Neji a little wave, and the Hyuuga returned it with a nod. "You guys having fun?"

"A little," Neji said, his eyes narrowing. "Though the quality of the rest of the participants was disappointing. It was not difficult to secure our scrolls."

"Yeah, we heard about that," Naruto said. "So you really grabbed three, huh?"

"Of course," Neji said. "What other-?" He titled his head, blank eyes darting from Naruto, to Sasuke, to Sakura, and then to Haku, standing at her side. "Ah. That's clever. Do you think it will work?"

"We believed it was the intended solution," Haku said, stepping forward. He extended his hand, and Neji blinked. "I'm Haku, of the Rain."

Neji glanced down at Haku's hand, and then turned towards Sakura, quirking an eyebrow. After a moment, Haku got the message. He slowly withdrew his hand. He didn't look embarrassed, but Sakura was feeling enough for both of them.

' _You allied with foriegn shinobi?'_ Neji's eyes were saying. Tenten had shrugged it off, and Lee had barely noticed, but their teammate wasn't the same way. Maybe because he was a Hyuuga, or maybe because he was Neji, competitive, powerful, and uncompromising. Whatever the reason, Neji was looking at her, the one who'd been standing most comfortably with Haku, and his blank eyes were full of something between judgement and amusement.

"Interesting," Neji said. "Well, I hope it works out for you. It would be dull for the only other team to pass to be from Sand."

"Are they around?" Naruto asked. "You know…" He tapped his temple, and Neji nodded and activated his Byakugan.

"They're here," he confirmed. "But they're keeping to themselves."

Naruto sighed. "That's what Tenten said," he said, and the girl grinned at him. "I guess…"

"You're frightened?" Lee asked, and Naruto jerked, looking at him. Sakura had wandered over to the corner of the training room, and she sat down, watching her teammate. "Why?"

"I'm not-!" Naruto started to declare, before deflating. "Yeah, I'm scared." He frowned. "Right before the second test started, he told me it was his destiny to kill me, or something. 'Cause both our dad were Kage. He really believed it too. It was creepy."

"Extremely," Sasuke confirmed.

"Also interesting," Neji said with a blank smile, and Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps he'd be a good opponent for me then."

"Hah," Naruto said, not nearly as enthusiastic as he should have been. "Yeah, that'd be nice. Maybe you could kick his ass like you have ours. That'd be great."

"If the opportunity arises," Neji said. "I'll make it happen. Without a doubt."

"Neji, Gai-Sensei would be proud!" Lee declared, and Neji rolled his eyes at him. "Defending an ally, and seeking out a powerful foe! That's the core of being a shinobi!"

"I dunno about that," Tenten said. "Hasn't the Hokage always said that being a shinobi is about sacrifice?"

"What a shinobi is isn't something everyone agrees on," Kabuto spoke up from the corner, and the room turned to look at him. "It's not a universal concept. Sacrifice, money, justice, peace… Everyone has their own reason." He smiled at Lee, who grinned back at the older boy. "But your sensei's certainly sounds like a good one."

"Of course!" Lee declared. "He's the strongest in the Leaf!"

Naruto laughed. "Not stronger than my dad." He stretched as Lee pouted, cracking something in his elbow. "Is there anything to eat around here or something? I'm starving."

"There's a dining hall downstairs," Neji said, slipping his shoes on. Both he and Lee had been barefoot during their spar. "Come. I could eat as well."

###

The Rain team stuck by their side throughout breakfast, and afterwards as well. The reason was simple; neither of them wanted to be separated from the other's scroll, and risk failing. They were good company as well, but after the way Neji had looked at her, Sakura tried not to think about that as much.

Two hours after they'd arrived at the tower, the proctor that had greeted them returned. She stumbled into the room, looking irritated, and tugged down her scarf to scowl at them.

"What happened?" Sasuke shot to his feet, and the woman rolled her eyes.

"Nothing," she said, walking over to them and putting her hands on her hips as she looked back and forth between the two teams. "Just a wild goose chase."

"He was there," Sakura insisted, and the woman nodded.

"He was there," she agreed. "All the sensors say so, though no one knows how he got in in the first place." She sighed. "Forget about that for now. So, what, you guys looking to pass?"

Sasuke and Suigetsu glanced at each other, and both nodded. At the same time, they reached into their pouches and removed their respective scrolls: Heaven and Earth.

"Huh," the proctor said, looking back and forth between the scrolls and the teams. "That's clever."

"So, do we pass?" Naruto asked with a grin, and the woman grinned back at him.

"Yeah, you pass," she said, and Naruto cheered. He gave Sasuke a high-five, who received it lacksadaiscaly, and turned and hugged Sakura, squeezing her and almost picking her up off the ground. She yelped in surprise, and he yelped as well, practically dropping her.

"Sorry!" he said as the proctor and the team from Rain laughed. His face was as red as a tomato "Sorry!"

"It's okay," Sakura said, catching her breath. She hadn't expected that, but it hadn't been bad. Just surprising. "I didn't think you'd get that excited, Naruto."

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah… I guess when I heard about the other teams, I wasn't sure if we'd pass. I was feeling really stupid." He turned back to the proctor. "But we did it!"

"Sure did," the woman said, sounding both tired and bored. "Toss me the scrolls, would you?"

Sasuke and Suigetsu obliged, and the proctor snatched both out of the air, tucking them behind her back.

"Okay, sit tight," she said. "There was gonna be a third test, but with only four teams passing, we're probably gonna have to skip it. Someone will be along for you guys." She left the room, and both teams settled back down, satisfied.

"We made a good choice," Suigetsu said with a smirk. "You guys did too."

"So there won't be a third test?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke nodded thoughtfully. "Does that mean we just win? We're chunin?"

"It's unlikely," Haku said with a soft smile. "The chunin exam is an opportunity for the villages to show off their strength to the countries of the world. There will probably be-"

"Another test, yes." All of them spun in alarm at the voice, and Sakura felt her stomach drop.

Naruto's father, the Fourth Hokage, was sitting next to his son, legs crossed beneath him, his long white coat flowing out behind him. He'd appeared from nowhere. The Yondaime had a serious look on his face, but he was calm and still. Naruto jerked away in surprise, but he was smiling; maybe he was used to his father suddenly showing up.

"Is that…?" Kabuto asked, and Haku bowed.

"Lord Hokage," he said, and his teammates followed suit, even Suigetsu. "You honor us with your presence." So polite, like he always was. But wasn't that you had to be, Sakura thought, in the presence of a man like Naruto's father?

"Haku of the Akatsuki," the Yondaime said with a coy smile, and Haku flinched. The Hokage knew his name? Sakura realized it wasn't that shocking after a moment of thought: they'd been in the tower for some time, and all the applicants were registered by the village. But it was still a surprise to hear the boy's name come from the Hokage's mouth. "It seems I may have to thank you and your team." He glanced at Naruto. "You helped my son where others could not."

"What happened to the others?" Naruto asked, and glanced at Sasuke. "And-!"

"One moment," the Hokage said, standing up. He seemed to tower over them, even though the difference in height was not that extreme; he just had an enormous and commanding presence. "Like I said, I am grateful for you and your team," he said, watching Haku with sharp blue eyes. Sakura couldn't read him at all. "But I have to discuss private business with my shinobi."

"Of course," Haku said, bowing again. "We'll leave you the room." He turned to leave, looking over his shoulder with a smile. "See you." He directed the comment at all of them, but he was looking at Sakura as he said it, and she felt something burn between them.

Sasuke was looking at her funny, and she shook off the feeling. The rest of the Rain team said their goodbyes and left the room, Kabuto bringing up the rear and gently closing the door.

The Hokage waited for a moment, watching the door and crossing his arms, before turning to them.

"You had an eventful day," he said, and Naruto laughed. "Obito was quite angry with me."

"Sensei was angry, Lord Hokage?" Sakura asked, and the man laughed.

"Minato is fine, Sakura," he said, and Sakura tried to wrap her head around the fact that the Hokage had just told her to stick to his first name. "And yeah. I told him this was going to be a safe exam." He frowned. "That turned out to be a lie."

"Where's Itachi?" Sasuke asked, and the Hokage blew out a breath.

"Gone," he said, and Sasuke flinched. "There's traces of his chakra, but no one was able to track him down, not even the sensor corp. Not even Kushina. We don't think he's still in the village, but it's possible." He held his hand up as Sasuke's questioning look. "Your family is safe. He didn't even approach the compound. We can't figure out why he was here."

"He told us," Naruto said, and his father glanced at him. "He said he was 'checking up' on Sasuke.

"Hmm." The Hokage looked doubtful, the same way Sakura felt. After what Itachi had done, there was no way he would just 'check up' on his brother. He must have had another motive. "Well regardless, the search is still out for him. Obito is leading it. If anything happens, he'll tell you."

Team Seven mulled that over, and the Hokage smiled. "I came here for one other reason," he said, and Naruto perked up. "I'm very impressed with all of you."

"Impressed, Lord Hokage?" Sakura asked, and Minato grinned.

"For teaming up with the Rain team," he said. "Not only did you guys figure out an unconventional way to pass my test… I was hoping something like that would happen."

"You were hoping for that?" Naruto asked, and the Hokage nodded.

"The Chunin Exam is a time for the villages to come together and compete off the battlefield," he said. "But it's always also been a good time to forge alliances, like the one we have with Sand. You three managed to look past that team's village and made allies of them; to you, they were still fellow shinobi." His smile faded a little. "That's exactly the kind of thinking we're going to need in the future."

"If Sand's our ally," Sasuke asked quietly, "why did their team hunt down all the other Leaf ninja?"

This time, the Hokage's smile vanished completely. "None of your friends were killed or crippled," he said with a distasteful look. "Despite Gaara's… proclivities, his father has him under control. The Kazekage came with him, to prevent anything too serious from happening."

"It was Gaara then? Not his teammates? Everyone's okay then?" Naruto asked, and his father shook his head.

"No," he said shortly, and for a second Sakura saw in the Hokage the same enormous anger that she sometimes felt in herself: the anger that had made her swallow the bells, try to crush Hidan's heart, the anger she had felt towards the entire world as she'd try to fall asleep on a wide branch in the dark. In her, it had driven her forward; in the Hokage, someone who could command a whole hidden village, it was something entirely more dangerous. "A team from Stone is dead. Gaara killed them all. But all of your comrades will recover; he did not disobey his father there, at least."

Dead? A team from Stone was dead? Sakura felt a cold sweat on her hands, her body growing clammy. Had there been more than one team from Stone? Or had those two girls and that boy… had they died, before leaving the forest? Had Sakura and her friends been one of the last people to see them live?

Had Gaara killed that scared boy who'd tried to keep his teammates from attacking the Hokage's son? Even though he'd just been trying to leave, had Gaara killed him? Sakura blinked, feeling her heart pounding.

"Well… I'm glad everyone'll be okay," Naruto said, picking up on his father's feelings; he looked a little surprised at the Yondaime's harsh tone. He shuffled his feet. "What are we doing next, then?"

"We'll be skipping straight to the final. It will be held in a month," the Hokage said. "There aren't enough teams to merit the third test, and you've all more than proved yourself regardless."

"What's the final going to be?" Naruto asked, and his father laughed.

"Now that would be giving you an unfair advantage," he said, and Naruto stuck his tongue out. "I just wanted to tell you guys I was impressed by your decision. I'm not gonna give you more than that."

"Thank you, Minato," Sasuke said quietly, and the Hokage gave him a nod. "If you see him before we do… tell Obito-sensei to be careful, please. Itachi's only gotten stronger. We couldn't even come close to touching him."

"Will do," the Hokage said, making the same motion that Sakura had seen their sensei do several times: bumping two pointed fingers off his hitai-ate in a modified salute. Was that where their sensei had picked it up in the first place? How surreal. "Good luck."

He vanished without sound or motion, and Team Seven was suddenly alone again. Less than five seconds later, before they could adjust to the quiet, the proctor that had greeted them stuck her head back into the room.

"All done?" she asked, and Sakura nodded. "Great; we're meeting in the central tournament room. Get on down there."

Team Seven dutifully followed the woman, Sakura entranced by her bouncing scarf. The woman glanced back at her as they descended yet another staircase, twisting towards the center of the tower.

"Hey, you're Kizashi's daughter, aren't you?" she asked, and Sakura tilted her head at the question. "Sakura Haruno."

"That's me," she said, and the woman grinned.

"I thought so; you've got your dad's hair," she said, and Sakura frowned.

"How do you know my father?" she asked, and the woman shrugged. Once again, both of Sakura's parents had been out of the village when the Chunin Exam started, but they'd promised they'd stay for the rest if Sakura passed the next couple tests. Even with the money she'd gotten from Hidan's bounty, they still kept taking missions.

It was thanks to that that Sakura had realized that at heart, both her parents were addicted to work. They took missions constantly, not because they needed the money, but because they preferred being on a mission over anything else.

' _Even spending time with me.'_

"He's one of my subordinates," the woman wearing several layers said as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "I'm Anko Mitarashi; your dad's ended up under my command a few times."

Oh! Sakura said the exclamation out loud as well, and Anko laughed. "You're Tokubetsu Anko?"

"The one and only," the woman said. "Your dad wouldn't stop talking about you the last couple months, y'know. He was ecstatic that you picked up a sword; he's got a fascination with them, that's for sure."

Her father always had loved his scissor-sword, Sakura thought. It was of his own design, even. But he hadn't expressed that same enthusiasm to her: he'd helped her train, and shown a bit of glee as she'd learned more advanced techniques and grown more confident with the blade, but Sakura wouldn't have called him 'ecstatic.'

"That's nice to hear," she said with a smile, trying not to let what she was thinking show through it. "I hope he's been a good subordinate."

"Always reliable," Anko said with a laugh. "If a little hotheaded." They reached the bottom of the tower and came to a set of huge double doors: the woman pushed through them without hesitation. All of the other remaining teams were inside the huge room behind the doors: Tenten's, Haku's, and Gaara's, all standing in lines of three, dutifully waiting. Anko pointed to a spot in the middle, to Tenten's right and the Sand team's left.

"Go wait there," she said. "It should only be a second."

Naruto took the lead, and Sakura fell in behind him, with Sasuke behind her. They trooped up besides Tenten's team, and Lee gave Naruto an enthusiastic wave. Tenten gave Sakura a smile, which she distractedly returned.

The team from Sand was about three meters to their right. The boy with the wrapped object on his back and the girl with the fan were just looking straight ahead, quiet and still as rocks. But Gaara of the Desert was looking left, staring at the front of their line. His eyes were completely fixed on Naruto, unblinking.

Naruto resisted the urge to look, but after a second he gave in, glancing back at Sakura and Sasuke and then to the right, at Gaara. Their eyes locked. Sakura felt something pass between them, as sure and solid as a gust of wind or a crackling flame.

After a moment, Gaara grinned. Naruto's head snapped back to the front of the room, but Gaara still refused to look away.

Sakura suppressed a shiver. Something was wrong with the boy from Sand. It was that simple. He was inhuman. She felt horrible to think about it, but she was glad he was focused on Naruto, and not her. Her teammate could handle it; he was strong, and braver than he thought. If Gaara went after him, Naruto could just blow him up. Sakura was sure of that, after what he'd done to the Stone team.

The team Gaara had killed...

"Good morning." Sakura's attention was drawn back to the front of the room. There were suddenly several shinobi there, including Anko. The man speaking was familiar to her: he was the man with spiky black hair and two scars that had been in the meeting Naruto had busted into to show off the Rasengan. "I am Shikaku Nara." He grinned humorlessly. "I was going to be the proctor of the Third Test, before you all proved too efficient for your own good." His eyes flickered over to Gaara. "Now, I will be the referee of the Chunin Exam Finals."

A Nara. Shikamaru's father, Sakura wondered? All the tests so far had been administered by shinobi from the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, like the one Ino had ended up in. All those clans were pretty prestigious: the Hokage really had been trying to keep things under control, if he'd been putting ninja like that in charge of tests.

Shikaku continued speaking, all the other shinobi motionless and silent at his side. There were about a dozen of them, a wall of flak jackets and grim faces. Were they here for them, Sakura thought, or in case Itachi Uchiha came back? She recognized some of them from the first test, including a Hyuuga. His Byakugan was active, pushing veins out of his temple.

"The Final will be held one month from now," Shikaku said. "There, you will be given your final chance to prove yourself worthy of being chunin. However, unlike the previous tests, you will not be working directly with your team." That made sense; all of the other stages had been testing their teamwork, information gathering, and survival skills. "It will be a tournament composed of duels: one on one. There will not be a bracket: you will only have a single fight, so you can put everything into it." Being a shinobi was about violence, first and foremost, Sakura thought. It made perfect sense for the final test to be a singular test of that skill.

Shikaku gestured behind him, to the massive television screen taking up most of the wall opposite the room's entrance. "The matches will be decided at random," he said, and Sakura felt something cold run down her spine, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. "They have not been pre-arranged; everything is thanks to a random number generator." He held up a remote, and pressed a button: the screen came to life and scrambled, names and numbers flying across it in complete chaos. "We will now determine the matches."

He pressed another button on the remote, and the screen flickered, names and numbers evaporating rapidly until only two remained. It was a slick presentation, Sakura had to admit, but in the back of her head she was wondering if the matches would truly be random. They only had Shikaku's guarantee, and sometimes, it would make more sense for the village to ensure that the 'right' people were matched up with one another. The same way the villages fought their wars in minor countries...

However, the very first names to pop up on the screen and remain there, faintly blinking black against a white background, made Sakura stop thinking that was the case immediately.

**NARUTO NAMIKAZE - - - SASUKE UCHIHA**

Naruto blinked, looking back to Sakura and past her in surprise. Sakura felt rooted to the floor. Her teammates had to fight each other? Only one of them could become chunin? She didn't even know what to think or feel. Wasn't that simply too cruel?

"Interesting," Shikaku muttered. He pointed to Sakura's team, and then to the side of the room. "You two, out of line."

Naruto and Sasuke complied, leaving her alone. They both seemed just as stunned as her. "Good luck," Naruto muttered, clapping his hand on her shoulder, and Sakura wished he'd left it there longer, to give her something to ground herself. It was as though she were starting to float away. She wouldn't have anyone to hide behind, anyone to help her or call out a warning. Sakura had never fought by herself. Would she have to fight one of her friends? What if she had to fight Tenten? She wouldn't have a chance.

The screen flashed again, plucking two more names from the chaos.

**SUIGETSU HOZUKI - - - ROCK LEE**

Lee cheered; Suigetsu just smirked. They followed Shikaku's pointed finger out of the line, heading towards the same wall as Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura winced. Lee fought with his fists, and Suigetsu was apparently made of water. It was a bad match-up for Tenten's teammate, no matter how strong he was.

Once again, the screen flashed.

**NEJI HYUUGA - - - KANKURO OF THE DESERT**

The boy from Sand grunted, while Neji just glanced at him dismissively. They both made their way to the wall without Shikaku's instruction. The screen kept flashing.

Sakura was getting worried. She didn't want to fight anyone who was left. Haku, or Tenten, or Kabuto, or…

**TEMARI OF THE DESERT - - - KABUTO YAKUSHI**

Kabuto gave the girl a smile. They didn't return it. Sakura was having to resist the urge to hyperventilate. There weren't any good options left for her. She felt alone and cold, standing with just three other people, two of which she respected immensely. It was like the world was drawing back, leaving her farther and farther from everyone else.

The screen changed.

**TENTEN - - - HAKU YUKI**

Sakura's heart stopped. Was that because an old and new friend would have to compete to become chunin, or because of what it meant for her? Neither Tenten or Haku left immediately, despite Shikaku's wordless gesture. They both looked at her, seemingly a million miles away. Sakura could barely bring herself to turn towards them. Tenten, and Haku behind her, had eerily similar expressions: their eyes narrowed, their lips pressed together. They were worried for her, she realized. A billion miles away, on the wall, Naruto had his teeth bared, like it would make a difference.

He'd been so afraid for himself, Sakura realized. What could he be feeling for her?

The screen flashed on last time, the flicker of light involuntarily drawing Sakura's eye. She saw on it what she already knew.

But seeing it there, spelled out in blocky black letters, still made her wish she could just sink into the ground and never come back up. She was sure she was going to throw up, but that would only make everything, somehow, even worse.

**SAKURA HARUNO - - - GAARA OF THE DESERT**

Unable to resist the urge, she glanced at Gaara. He was staring at the screen, his expression unreadable. Before Sakura could look away, his eyes slid over to meet hers.

In those eyes, the eyes of someone who'd hunted down more than five teams and murdered another, helpless one, there wasn't a single thing. They were as empty as the desert.

Sakura looked away, trying to control her breathing and failing. She was scared. She didn't want to die.

She didn't have a single chance. There was no way she'd become a chunin. She should just forfeit right now. She tried to raise her hand, to say something, but terror locked up her muscles. She couldn't move an inch.

"That's that, then," Shikaku Nara said, and the screen went black with a flicker of static. "You all have one month. The final will be held on February second, in the central Leaf arena." He looked around, and Sakura could swear that when his eyes flitted over her, rooted in place in the center of the room, totally alone, there was a flash of pity in them. "All teams are dismissed."

It was that pity that made Sakura move, in the end. She turned, stiff and robotic, and walked towards her team. They met her in the middle.

"Okay," Naruto said under his breath, and Sakura stared at him. "Okay. It's gonna be okay."

"We'll make this work," Sasuke said. Sakura looked at him, feeling a bit of life come back to her. Sasuke didn't look scared; just determined. "Sakura, you're going to be fine. Obito will make this work."

He said it so confidently, Sakura thought.

But that didn't make it true.


	18. Determination

Fear and Fury 

Sakura slept-walked through the next hour. Everything that happened seemed distant and cold; she remembered and understood, but it was only in hindsight that it made an impression on her. 

One by one, the teams left the tower. Sand was first, and then Rain. They both watched Sakura as they left, but for different reasons. Tenten’s team stayed for a while, quietly talking with them, but Sakura spent the conversation staring at the floor, the words washing over her. Eventually, they left as well, and it was just her, Naruto, Sasuke, and Shikaku.

The Nara ushered them out of the training ground, and before Sakura knew it she was in the village, walking alongside her teammates and trapped inside her own head.

I was prepared to fail, she thought to herself, the village grey and lifeless to her despite its winter finery. I told myself that from the beginning. It’s my first exam. Most people don’t pass the first time. I was totally ready to try again.

But trapped in the grey village, Sakura realized that she had come so far, trounced another team, made allies with foriegn shinobi, proved herself worthy of her sword… and all that had accomplished was plant a bitterness in her when she came up against an impassable obstacle at the finish line. 

Gaara of the Desert. There wasn’t any life in his eyes. He’d murdered the team from Stone and removed almost every Leaf ninja from the field. If he could do that, what chance did Sakura have against him? She should have forfeited there in the tower, before paralysis had taken her. That would have been less humiliating.

“Hey.” Naruto’s words were faint, and Sakura almost jumped when he seized her shoulder and lightly shook her. “Hey! You home?”

“What?” Sakura asked, and Naruto gave her a concerned look. She looked around, not recognizing where they were. They were in one of Konoha’s residential districts running alongside its largest canal; the homes here were squat and large, and trees sprouted everywhere seemingly at random, forming a thin shadowy canopy. “Sorry.”  
  
“Don’t be sorry,” Sasuke said, glancing back at her. He was staring off at the canal, seemingly stuck in his own head as well. Sakura felt a flash of shame. While she was obsessing over the exam and Gaara, Sasuke had probably been struggling with the phantom of his brother. Itachi had appeared and vanished without a trace, and apparently left nothing but a broken arm in his wake. “Can’t believe you got matched with Gaara.”   
  
“Yeah.” Sakura didn’t know what else to say. Maybe there wasn’t anything else to say in the first place. “Yeah. Where are we?” 

Naruto pointed. “My house,” he said, and Sakura blinked in surprise, following his finger. The home was like the others, with a short gate wrapped around the front of it enclosing a small, unkempt lawn. Naruto walked up without hesitation (why would he hesitate, it was his own house, not just the Hokage’s) and swung the gate open without a sound. “Let’s head in. We gotta figure this out.” 

Sasuke followed after him as Naruto entered the yard, and after a moment of uncertainty, Sakura went too. Naruto opened the front door, and they all made their way into his home. 

It wasn’t what Sakura had expected, though if she were honest with herself she didn’t know what she _had_ been expecting. The house was filled with plants, some hanging from the ceiling of the hall leading deeper into the home. The walls of the hall were lined with pictures. Some were of Naruto at all ages, others of the rest of the family, and a few of people Sakura didn’t recognize: a huge man with long, spiky white hair and a wide smirk, a small boy with snow-white hair and a mask, and a man with the black hair and severe features of an Uchiha, wearing a kind smile at odds with his serious demeanor. Naruto led them down the hall to the other end of the home, and into the kitchen.

It was big, twice the size of Sakura’s, and one wall was dominated by a window that ran the length of the room. There were plants here too, including what Sakura could only describe as a small palm tree near the window. Beneath the wall-length window, there was a long, wide table made of a dark wood, with two chairs and two benches pulled up to it. It was empty, and there was a small clear stain on one corner. 

“Naruto?” A voice came from one of the adjoining rooms, and a woman entered the kitchen from the only other entrance, her face lighting up when she saw them. She wasn’t very tall, but she was striking, with light blue eyes and long red hair. Sakura recognized her right away. Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto’s mother.

Wait. Sakura stopped, and Sasuke looked back at her with a questioning look. She shook her head.

 _Uzumaki_? 

“Hey mom,” Naruto grinned and gave a small wave. “I brought-”  
  
His mother huffed and stormed up to him, sweeping him into a crushing hug, and Naruto squirmed and protested, legs kicking as he was lifted off the ground. “Cut it out!” he said with a laugh, and Kushina deposited him to the ground with a laugh that sounded just like her son.

“Congratulations!” she smiled, first at him and then at all of them. “Minato told me you all passed the second test! You’re going on to the finals, y’know? That’s an amazing thing!” 

“Yeah…” Naruto rubbed the back of his head. “Did dad tell you what happened?”  
  
“‘What happened?’” Kushina asked, and Naruto winced.

“Guess not,” he muttered. “The final’s just gonna be a bunch of one on one matches.”  
  
“It usually is,” his mother noted with a cocked eyebrow, looking around at all of them and picking up on their somber attitude.

“Sasuke and I got matched up,” Naruto said, and somehow his mother’s eyebrow rose even higher. “And Sakura got set up with Gaara of the Desert. That guy who-”  
  
“I’m familiar,” Kushina said shortly, and Sakura wondered why that was. No matter how intimidating he was, Gaara was still just a genin like the rest of them. Why would Naruto’s mother already know about him? She guessed that the Hokage had already told her about what the shinobi from Sand had done in the Forest. Kushina turned to face Sakura, and Sakura felt the grey that had dominated her vision recede even farther under the intense focus of the kunoichi. 

Kushina crossed her arms, looking Sakura up and down, her eyes appraising. “You scared?” she asked, and after a moment Sakura wordlessly nodded. What would be the point of lying?

“Good,” Kushina said with a small laugh, and Sakura blinked. “Gaara’s going to be a hell of a guy to go up against, especially in an environment like the final.” She stepped forward, extending one hand with a grin. “I dunno if we’ve officially met before. Naruto’s told me plenty about you, but I’ve never had you over.” 

Sakura put out her own hand, and Kushina took it in a firm handshake, though her expression was anything but formal. “It’s nice to meet you,” Sakura rehearsed, and Kushina frowned.

“Don’t be so worried,” she said. Her smile was just like Naruto’s, and it made Sakura feel better just looking at it. “Obito will take care of you, I guarantee it. If I know him, he’s not gonna settle for anything less than you kicking that guy’s ass.” 

“He’s a freak,” Sasuke muttered. “Someone had better.”  
  
“Don’t say that,” Kushina said, her tone suddenly harsh, and Sakura resisted the urge to step backwards. So did Sasuke, obvious surprise flitting across his face. Naruto’s mother grimaced. “Sorry.”   
  
“What-?” Naruto started to ask, and his mother shook her head. 

“He’s a victim of circumstances beyond his control, y’know?” she said. “Even if he’s the way he is… try not to hold it against him.” She frowned. “Maybe you’ll understand later. I dunno.”  
  
“Mom, what’re you talking about?” Naruto demanded, stepping forward. “That guy said it was his ‘destiny’ to kill me: anyone like that-!”   
  
“Must have something really wrong with them,” Kushina finished for him. “Without a doubt. I’m just saying…” She blew out a frustrated breath. “I dunno what I’m saying. Do you guys want some lunch or something? You all gotta be starving.” 

“Lunch sounds nice,” Sakura admitted, feeling more awake. “Do you know where Obito is, Mrs. Uzumaki?”  
  
“Nope,” Kushina said, wandering over to the fridge and rifling through it with abandon. She began pulling out ingredients at random. “And don’t call me that. It’s just Kushina, Sakura.”   
  
Sakura found it hard to believe that both of Naruto’s parents had insisted on a first name basis on the same day, but that was the reality she presented with. She sighed, and surrendered.

“Sorry, Kushina.”

Uzumaki. She couldn’t get past the name. Sakura kept tripping over it.   
  
“No problem.” Kushina laid out a ridiculous amount of food on the table and began slapping something together that could vaguely be called a sandwich. “Grab a seat. This should just take a sec.” 

It took more than a second, and the end product was messy and fell apart twice, but when Sakura and her team were finished eating she felt almost human. Kushina sat across the table from her, and when Sakura sighed and expressed her thanks the woman just grinned and waved her off.

“Least I could do,” she set, resting her chin on the back of her hand, arm propped up on the table. “So…” Her eyes slid over all three of them. “What’s your next move? You’ve got a month; what’re you doing with it?”  
  
“Should we do anything?” Naruto asked, and Sasuke glanced at him in disbelief. 

“ _I’m_ gonna train,” he said, and Naruto flicked a vegetable at him. Sasuke caught it out of the air and gently set it down on his plate, and Naruto rolled his eyes. For the first time that day, Sakura felt the urge to laugh, and didn’t suppress it. She let out a little giggle as her teammates argued, and Kushina smiled at it. “If you want to lose, feel free not to.” 

“I’m not gonna lose!” Naruto declared. “You’re gonna lose!”  
  
“Whichever one of us wins will become chunin,” Sasuke said, and Sakura wondered if it really was that simple. “I’m not going to treat this like a spar, Naruto.” He was getting worked up, more so than was necessary. “If you-!”   
  
“He’s not your brother,” Kushina said softly, and Sasuke instantly deflated, looking down at the table. “But it’s good that you’re both competitive. You should both do your best.” She grinned. “You’ve been ninja together since the beginning. You know your strengths and weaknesses. It’ll be a good fight, don’t you think?”   
  
“Maybe,” Naruto admitted. “I’d rather it be someone else though.”   
  
“Me too,” Sasuke said quietly, and the nascent tension vanished. He glanced over. “For now, we should focus on Sakura.” 

“I think…” Sakura didn’t quite know how to say it. “I don’t know if I should fight.”  
  
“Before you go that far,” Kushina said, “you should learn more about your opponent.” She stood up, clearing their plates from the table. “A shinobi is someone who endures and sacrifices, Sakura. If you think you’re ready to be a chunin, you’ll fight. If you’re not, you shouldn’t go any farther, y’know. It’s that simple.” 

Sakura didn’t know if it was that simple, or what decision she should make at all, so she just nodded.

“Alright,” Kushina said, settling the plates in the sink. “I don’t know a thing about how Gaara fights… but I bet those other teams he took out do.” She looked over her shoulder with a wry smile. “I _do_ know that both Team Eight and Ten are in the eastern hospital. Maybe you should give them a visit, huh? I bet they’d be happy to have had some of their classmates pass the second test.”

“Good idea!” Naruto shot to his feet. He’d been wanting to check on them anyway, Sakura knew. The other Leaf ninja had been the first thing he’d asked his father about. “Thanks mom!”  
  
“No problem. Now, get going.” Kushina shooed them out of the kitchen. Sakura looked back, still not sure if any of this was worth it, and the woman winked at her.

“You’d be amazed how quick a month can go,” she said. “Don’t waste it, alright?”  
  
Sakura nodded, and was the last out the door. 

###

“You got matched with him?” 

Sakura nodded, her throat tightening. Shikamaru blew out a breath and sat back in his bed, wincing a little at the motion. His left leg was completely covered by a thick cast, and was elevated over the bed.

“So you two were the ones who actually fought him?” Sasuke asked, looking from Shikamaru to the room’s other occupant. “Hinata?”

The girl nodded. Sakura thought she was putting on a brave face, and failing. Like Shikamaru, one of her legs was broken. However, she’d suffered something more than him.

The ring finger on her right hand ended at the first joint. A bandage had been tied around the extremity, and as she fiddled with her fingers, something Hinata had always done, her left ring finger kept slipping through the gap, forgetting its partner was gone. Looking at her classmate fidget and seeing how pale she was, Sakura felt totally awake. Hinata had always been a gentle person, sometimes too gentle for her own good.

Seeing her like that...

There was a monstrous anger swelling up inside Sakura, burning away the shadows and fatigue that had clung to her ever since she’d rosen from her sleepless night. 

_‘That bastard.’_

“It was all of us,” the girl said quietly. She looked around at the full room. Team Seven wasn’t the only one there: both Shikamaru and Hinata’s teammates had squeezed into the hospital room, and had already been there when Sakura and her teammates had arrived. They all looked how Sakura felt: utterly furious. “We tried to team up; we thought we could pass by handing in the scrolls together.”  
  
“We did the same thing,” Sasuke said, watching the Hyuuga intently. “We ended up with the team from Rain.” Everyone looked surprised at that, but the Uchiha ignored it. “So Gaara tracked you both down?”   
  
“It was awful,” Ino spoke up from the corner, and Sakura looked over at her. The Yamanaka gave her a haunted look. “He was just…”

“We all ganged up on him,” Choji added. “Shikamaru figured that one versus six would be good odds.”  
  
Shikamaru laughed, gesturing at his leg. “Bad idea.”   
  
“What did he do?” Sakura said quietly. The anger in her couldn’t stop growing, but it was nearly matched by fear. They both raced up her body in waves of heat and cold, making her feel flushed and confused. “Was it some sort of jutsu?”   
  
“It was sand,” Shino said. He was sitting in the corner, his legs crossed beneath him. He’d been so quiet that Sakura had almost forgotten he was there. “He controlled sand.”   
  
“Not all of it,” Shikamaru clarified. “Some of it was automatic.”

“Back up.” Naruto made a reeling motion. “Sand? Like, just a bunch of sand?”  
  
The Nara nodded. “Incredibly fast, incredibly strong sand,” he confirmed. “It came out of the gourd on his back.” Kiba started to speak and Shikamaru glared at him, and the Inuzuka stayed quiet, sulking. “Some of it was directed by him; that went after the attackers. The rest reacted automatically to attacks. It shielded him from Kiba and Hinata, even though they attacked from his blind spot.” He leaned forward, interlacing his fingers under his chin. “His teammates didn’t even step in; they knew we didn’t have a chance.”

“It crushed my insects,” Shino said.

“And nearly killed Akamaru,” Kiba growled, and Hinata nodded. 

“I saw it,” she said, her voice faint and sad. Sakura wasn’t sure whether she wanted to hug the girl or murder everyone who’d ever done her wrong. “The sand was infused with his chakra. He must carry it with him everywhere, constantly pumping more and more chakra into it. His whole body is covered with it, like some sort of armor. He could direct it with just a thought…” She shivered. “And there was another chakra, inside of it. It only came out when it was defending him.”  
  
“Another chakra?” Sasuke asked, and the Hyuuga shook her head.

“I couldn’t explain it. I could barely tell them apart. Maybe with your Sharingan…” she said, before lowering her head. “I was useless.”  
  
“You saved Akamaru!” Kiba barked, his face twisting in fury. “That bastard was about to crush him!” From atop his head, his partner yipped in agreement. “You weren’t-!”   
  
“I’m sorry.” Hinata shuddered. “I’m sorry.” Kiba shut up, looking stricken.

“It was another chakra,” Ino said, quiet but certain. She crossed her arms and took a deep breath. “Sakura, I hit him with my Shintenshin, after he caught Shikamaru. I thought I could…” She choked. “There was something there, inside him. It pushed me out immediately. It wasn’t human.”

“What do you mean?” Sakura asked, and Ino could only shake her head. 

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

None of them knew how to respond to that. The room was silent. 

“Your leg,” Sasuke said after a moment. His hands had curled into fists, and he nodded at Shikamaru as he spoke, then at Hinata. His voice was like a razor. “And yours. And your finger. What happened?”

“He crushed it,” Shikamaru laughed, and Sakura thought the sound was a little sick. “He probably could have ripped it right off if he’d wanted to. I caught him with the Shadow Possession to start everything off, and he ignored it.” He got a thoughtful look. “His sand could attack and defend regardless of his body being restrained. It’s really an incredible technique. I tried to jump away, but he caught me.” 

“The same happened to me,” Hinata said. “He caught me in the air when I got Akamaru out of the way: Kiba got away.” Kiba looked down. He seemed ashamed. “I tried to strike past it…” She closed her eyes. “The sand came up, like a blade. If I hadn’t pulled back, I would have lost my whole hand.” 

Sand that could attack, defend, and form blades, all autonomously, without Gaara moving. Inhuman chakra inside him. Sakura closed her eyes and rolled the situation over in her head, over and over until it was a well-worn stone. Her anger wore it down farther and farther, trying to reach the core. Right now, with her classmates wounded and so obviously frightened, she couldn’t consider forfeiting. It didn’t even cross her mind. 

“Are you gonna be okay?” Naruto asked, looking back and forth between Shikamaru and Hinata. The Nara shrugged.

“Probably,” he said. “The bone is intact. The only reason we’re alive is because of that guy’s teammates. He brought his hand up-” he mimicked the motion, “and the girl started screaming at him about how their father would punish all of them. That made him hesitate.” He frowned. “The Kazekage must keep him on a real tight leash. After that, he just crushed our legs, and demanded our scrolls.”  
  
“We turned them over,” Choji said, shaking his head. “What else were we supposed to do?”   
  
“You did the right thing,” Sakura said faintly, her eyes narrowing. “It was just a test. It wasn’t worth… that.”   
  
“Dying?” Shikamaru said, and Sakura nodded. He laughed. “Seems that’s all being a ninja is. Maybe the whole thing isn’t worth it.”   
  
Maybe, Sakura thought, but she didn’t say it out loud. 

  
“What are you going to do then?” Ino asked. “Sakura… can you even fight that?”   
  
“I don’t know,” Sakura said. She looked at Shikamaru’s leg, and Hinata’s missing finger. 

She really didn’t know. Gaara had defeated two teams without moving. In all likelihood, she couldn’t even be a speedbump to him.

But the fear inside her was fading, and the anger was all that remained. 

###

When Obito found them on the roof of the academy, the sun was starting to set. Team Seven had grabbed an early dinner and was eating it on top of the building, a mix of dumplings and rice from a food cart. Naruto was practicing his balance while he ate, crouching on the railing surrounding the roof and not using chakra to stick himself in place.

When Obito appeared in a spiral of chakra from out of nowhere, Naruto almost slipped and fell off.

Their sensei looked around, his eyes eventually fixing on Sasuke as his strange seven-point Sharingan receded. Sasuke was sitting besides Sakura on the steps that led from one part of the roof to the other, and he gave Obito a look as the man’s Sharingan fully vanished.

Their sensei shook his head, and Sasuke looked down.

“Sorry, Sasuke,” Obito said, stepping forward to join them as Naruto inched back over the railing, carefully holding his meal in one hand. “I couldn’t catch him.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Sasuke said with a frown, taking another bite from a dumpling. “I didn’t think you would.”  
  
“Hey now,” Obito said, coming to a stop next to them and turning to sit at Sasuke’s side. “Have a little more faith in me.”   
  
“I don’t think there’s a person in the world you couldn’t catch, Obito,” Sasuke said quietly. “Except for Itachi.”   
  
Their sensei scratched at the scar that ran past his jaw. “Yeah,” he said eventually. “Maybe you’re right.” He looked past Sasuke to Sakura, and smiled a little dourly. “I heard you visited the hospital.”   
  
“Rin?” Sakura asked, and Obito nodded. Rin didn’t work at the eastern hospital usually, but she was a jonin and one of the heads of Konoha’s medical division: when it came to the injured, she was as good as omniscient. Sakura knew that, at least. 

“Yeah,” her sensei said. “I also heard who you were matched up with.” His eyes narrowed. “Looking for some information?”  
  
“Mom sent us that way,” Naruto said, hopping down off the railing and striding over. “She said the other guys might know something about Gaara.”   
  
“She was right,” Sasuke said.

“Oh?” Obito crossed his arms, looking at Sakura. “What did you learn?”  
  
Sakura swallowed a bite of rice, thinking it over and watching the sun set behind her sensei. “He can control sand,” she said, and Obito nodded. “He doesn’t need to move to do it, and it’s fast enough that it caught all of Team Eight and Ten off guard. He was immune to both the Shadow Possession because of that, and the Mind-Body Switch jutsu because of another chakra inside him.” Obito looked a little surprised at that. Sakura took another bite, chewing thoughtfully and marveling at her own calmness. “The sand can defend him automatically, but it seems like he has to direct it to attack, because he didn’t kill Hinata right away, only blocked her attack.”   
  
“That’s good,” Obito said, and Sakura felt a bit of warmth at the praise. “Do you think you can win?”   
  
“Right now?” Sakura asked, and her sensei nodded. “No. I don’t stand a chance.”

“Okay, that’s good,” Obito said, and then laughed at Sakura’s expression and Naruto’s protest. “That you’re being realistic! You’ve got a handle on the situation. That’s the good part. That means the important question is…” He mulled for a moment, and then smiled. “Do you _want_ to win?” 

Sakura thought about it. She wasn’t ambitious, and she didn’t resent people, she’d always thought.

_‘But you can’t let that guy just walk away.’_

Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t want to lose.”  
  
“Close enough.” Obito grinned. “More than close enough.” He leaned forward. “You’re scared, I can see it. That’s also good. A lot of the time, that’s what being a ninja is, you know. Only a real idiot isn’t scared.”

Sakura felt more angry than scared right now, but she’d never known Obito to be wrong when it came to observing people.

_‘Are you angry, or are you just using that to cover your fear?’_

“No way my dad’s ever been scared,” Naruto declared, and Obito turned to him with a wry look. 

“You should ask him sometime,” he said. “I can guarantee that sensei’s probably been more scared than you’ve ever been. He has a lot more to worry about, you know.” 

Naruto looked a little shocked, but it made sense to Sakura. The Hokage wasn’t just a ninja; they were someone who had to balance the village, the shinobi system, the economy driven by violence, the demands of the Daimyo, both Fire’s and foreigners, and even more all on their back. She couldn’t imagine how difficult or how frightening the position could be. Compared to that, a single deranged ninja like Gaara was nothing. 

“Obito,” Sasuke said, and their sensei turned towards him.

“ _Sensei_ ,” he said with exasperation, and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

“Obito- _sensei_ ,” he said with a grin, and Obito grinned back. “Naruto and I are just up against each other. You heard?”   
  
“Yeah. Interesting match,” Obito said. “You both gonna-?”   
  
“We’re gonna train with our families,” Naruto cut in, sitting down on the floor in front of all of them. “I don’t want this guy knowing about what I’m working on.”   
  
Sasuke chuckled. “Same goes for you, I guess,” he said, and Naruto gave him a mean grin.

“We’re both gonna try our best,” he continued to Obito. “And we’ve all agreed,” he said, gesturing between himself, Sakura, and Sasuke, “that you should focus on Sakura. We’re not gonna kill each other, but Gaara…” He grew a little quiet, looking at Sakura with a subdued expression. “If Gaara thinks he can get away with it, he’ll definitely kill her.” 

“Sensei,” Sakura said when Naruto was finished. “I want to train with you, for the month. I don’t know if I can win, but I don’t want to just…” She struggled with the words, and they finally burst out of her, unable to be controlled.

“I don’t want to just give up!” She shot to her feet, the whole team looking at her with surprise. “After what he did to Hinata, and Shikamaru, and that team from Stone, it’s unforgivable!” She knew that she was saying too much, speaking too loudly, but she couldn’t contain herself. “Someone has to teach him a lesson!”

Obito’s mouth opened and closed; her sensei was clearly unsure how to respond to her outburst. Naruto had no such hesitation.

“Exactly!” he said, coming to his feet as well. “You’ve got to show him, Sakura!” He grinned, fierce and furious, and for the first time in her life Sakura felt like they were equals, on the same plane and feeling the same thing. “He can’t just go around killing people! If you’ve got the chance, you’ve got to show him that!”

“If that’s really how you feel,” Obito said, slowly standing up, “we should probably get started right away.” Sasuke was the only one left sitting, and he looked around curiously, taking another bite of his dumpling. “There’s a lot of work to get done, and there’s no time to lose.” 

“You have to tell me what to do,” Sakura said. Her heart felt like a stone, and her mind like steel. She was furious, the anger pushing her forward. “I don’t even know where to start.”

_‘You’re stupid if you think that will last forever. When the month’s done, will you still be angry?’_

She pushed the voice back. In that moment, Sakura was sure she had enough anger for the rest of her life. It wasn’t just Gaara that her fury was directed at: it was the entire world that had brought him into existence. Everything Haku had told her just twenty hours ago was mixing together with the blank eyes of the boy from Sand, and all Sakura could feel at that was frustration and a desire to tear him down. 

_‘I don’t want to be scared_ ,” she told herself. _‘I’m sick of being scared. I want to fight.’_

_‘If I’m going to be a ninja, I want to be the best one possible.’_

“Okay,” her sensei said, a faint smile creeping over his face. “Leave it to me then. For today, just get some rest. We’ll be starting tomorrow.” 

Sakura smiled back.

###  
  
“Asuma!” At around midnight, Obito burst into a bar somewhere in the south of Konoha, and Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuhi, and several other ninja glanced up from their table, drinks, and cards. 

“Obito?” the Third Hokage’s son asked, looking a little flushed. Kurenai scowled next to him, nursing her drink. “What’re you doing?” It wasn’t a secret in Konoha that Obito didn’t drink; it was definitely unusual to find him in a bar. 

“I need your help,” Obito said, striding over to the table, and Kurenai snorted. 

“Your team passed,” she said, obviously a little tipsy. “Why’re you the one needing help?” She leaned her drink back and forth, watching the liquid inside rise and fall. “Your students are all fine.”

“Sakura’s going up against Gaara alone,” Obito said. He didn’t take a seat. “You know what that means.”  
  
“Yeah,” Asuma admitted, sliding off his chair and to his feet. “What’re you saying?”   
  
“I’m saying, if you wanna make sure your teams didn’t get knocked out for nothing-” Obito shook his head. “No, sorry. That’s not right. I don’t want what happened to Hinata and Shikamaru to happen to Sakura. I want your help. I’m figuring something out.”   
  
“Oh?” At that, Kurenai looked up. “Whadya mean?”   
  
“Both your teams collected a lot of info about how Gaara fights,” Obito said, and Kurenai rose from the table too, to a chorus of heckling from the other ninja there. Obito rolled his eyes. “Wanna head outside?”   
  
The two jonin-sensei followed him out the door, the cool night air sobering them up a little. Asuma sighed and pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it with a snap of his fingers, and Kurenai let him get away with it, offering only a sardonic glance. 

“He’s a terrifying opponent,” Obito said, looking up at the stars. So distant and bright, he thought. He smiled. “Sakura’s not there yet; she’s not going to be able to take him on even footing, no matter how much I train her for the month before the final.” 

“That’s a given,” Asuma said. “He’s a damn jinchuriki. It’s never gonna be a fair match.” He took a deep puff of his cigarette and breathed out, settling himself. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m still figuring it out,” Obito said. “But I got the start of something, and I think I’m gonna need you for some of it. It’s not really my specialty.” 

“You’re being pretty coy,” Kurenai said slyly, and Obito shuffled his feet. “Not like you, Obito.”  
  
“I don’t wanna…” Obito started to say, and then gave up, frustrated. “I wish I could teach her myself. But something like Gaara, with that sand… my Sharingan has always given me the tools to surpass that sort of thing. I haven’t had to develop the skills to defeat it with normal jutsu.” He rubbed his temple, and then grinned, one of his eyes flashing red in the dim light of the street. “You’re not like me, you two. You’ve got your specialties, but you’ve put something into just about everything. All I’ve got are copies. Sakura is going to need something new… and I don’t know if I can make that.”   
  
Asuma chuckled. “All you’ve got is a lack of confidence,” he said, his lips heating up and burning the cigarette to ash. Obito frowned, and Asuma shook the ash out into the lightly blowing wind. “But I won’t lie, helping train someone to take down that little punk does sound pretty appealing.” 

“You’ll help?” Obito asked, and Asuma grunted. 

“I’ll come by tomorrow and check her out,” he said. Kurenai took his arm and began leading him away, and he called back over his shoulder at Obito. “If I like what I see, I’ll consider it!”

Obito watched the two jonin walk into the night, and then looked back at the stars. 

If he was being honest with himself, he was terrified. He hadn’t shown that to Sakura, couldn’t, and he wouldn’t dare show it to any of the other jonin. He was Mangekyo no Obito: he had no right to be scared.

But he’d seen what remained of the team from Stone, left out like smears from an overly ambitious butcher-bird, and he’d seen Sakura in every one of them. It was like a tribute, he thought. A tribute to something he couldn’t understand, a message in crushed bone and solidified blood. 

Even if there was no way in hell he’d let Sakura become another tribute, the fear gnawed at him all the way back to his apartment. It was an old fear, burning anew with concern for his student. 

You’re a ghost, Obito. You were blessed with a power to save yourself from whatever the world threw at you.

But only yourself. 


	19. The First Week

Sakura's Potential

Sakura and her sensei danced across the training field in the bright morning sun, and for the fifth time that day there was a loud ring of steel. Obito's sword flashed out and Sakura's flew away, shinobi and blade skittering across the dirt in different directions.

Sakura scrambled after her sword and whipped it off the ground as she came back to her feet, panting with the effort. Obito advanced on her, remorseless. His Sharingan was active: his left eye was closed. He was totally untouched.

"Again," he demanded, and then he lunged.

Her arms were shaking and her body was covered in sweat, but Sakura refused to back down. She bared her teeth and met Obito's short sword with her blade, knocking it back and kicking out at her sensei's gut. The kick passed right through him, and Obito spun out of the attack, his hand coming around. Sakura raised her arm in a hasty block, and his closed fist crashed into her, knocking her sideways and sending her tumbling head over heels.

She didn't release her sword, but when she came back to her feet, Obito was already in her face. He kicked out, trying to knock her blade out of her hands, and Sakura leapt backwards, the air pressure of the missed kick throwing her hair up.

Sakura had always wanted to train with her sensei alone, especially after she'd taken up her sword. She hadn't expected it would be like this.

She lashed out, and her blade passed harmlessly through Obito's leg. He kicked out again, and this one took Sakura in the gut and sent her flying back. It felt like a hot iron had been slammed into her stomach; all the air in Sakura's lungs vanished in an instant, and she hit the ground and rolled in pain, one hand pressed to her stomach and the other holding up her sword.

Her sensei reached out, fingers settling and sticking on the sides of her sword, and tried to yank it from her grip. Lying on her back and struggling to breath, Sakura stubbornly held on. Her back lifted off the ground; Obito grinned down at her.

' _Screw you.'_

"Alright," her sensei said, letting go of the sword. Sakura flopped to the earth, gasping for air, and Obito knelt down and extended his hand. "Well done."

Sakura took the offered hand, and Obito hauled her to her feet, glancing off to his right for a moment. "You okay?" he asked, looking back to her, and Sakura nodded, not sure if she could speak. Her whole body ached, her arms and core especially. She was going to have some incredible bruises. It had only been ten minutes, and she already felt like falling down and not getting back up.

"I think you showed enough," Obito said with a friendly smile. He glanced away again, to their watcher. "Don't you?"

Asuma Sarutobi was leaning against a tree at the edge of the training ground, unshaven and taking the occasional sip from a canteen. He'd been watching their spar with mild interest. At least, that's what Sakura had managed to see in passing as Obito had disarmed her time and time again. She didn't know much about Team Ten's sensei, other than that he was the Third Hokage's son. The man was intimidating though, tall and rough looking.

"She's enthusiastic," Asuma said, pushing himself off the tree and wandering towards them. He took a cigarette from his breast pocket, but he didn't light it. Sakura gave him a questioning look, and he squinted at her. "But that's never enough on its own."

He took the final steps, drawing up before Sakura and Sensei. He was a tall and broad man, over six feet, and dwarfed both of them. Sakura felt like his shadow had fallen over her, even though the sun was at her back.

"Put out your hand," he said mildly, and Sakura complied, sticking out her left hand with an open palm. Asuma plopped down his cigarette on her palm.

"Rotate it," he said, and Sakura looked from him to Obito in confusion. "Without touching it. Spin it around."

"Asuma…" Obito muttered, and the man laughed.

"If she can't do this, I won't be any use here," he said. Sakura still wasn't sure what was going on, but the man's tone was rude, and it caused something inside her to boil. "So, show me I should stick around. Spin it around, pinky."

"With just my chakra?" Sakura asked, struggling to stay polite, and Asuma nodded, looking down to pluck another cigarette from his pocket.

"'Course," he said, fiddling with whatever else was in his pocket. He kept his head down, not looking at her, and Sakura's nostrils flared. "Chakra is what makes a ninja. Without it, you're just a thug with a knife. If you can't-"

The cigarette in Sakura's hand spun so violently that it took flight, springing up in the air and bouncing off Asuma's nose. The jonin blinked, and behind Sakura, Obito loudly snorted.

As soon as she'd done it, Sakura regretted the trick, but Asuma didn't yell, or leave. He just stood there for a moment, apparently shocked.

"Do that again," he said, and Sakura was the one to blink this time.

"Eh?" she asked intelligently, and Asuma somewhat fervently pressed another cigarette into her palm.

"Do that again," he demanded once more, and Sakura couldn't refuse him. Her chakra extended slightly out of her palm, picking the cigarette just a millimeter up off her skin and spinning it around like a small fan. After a moment, she shoved, and the rotating stick sprung off her palm, up towards Asuma's face once more.

He caught it out of the air between two fingers, his eyes narrowing as he stared down at her.

"Did you show her that?" he asked Obito, his voice suspicious, and Obito shrugged and raised his hands in a helpless gesture and Sakura watched the two adults with confusion. "Did you know-?"

"I didn't know you'd ask her to do that, no," Obito cut him off. He glanced at Sakura. "It's like I told you. She's a natural."

"It's like the Rasengan," Sakura spoke up. Why were they staring at her? "I can't do it myself, but it's the same principle, right? Just rotating the chakra in your palm?"

Asuma didn't blink. The cigarette lit in his hands, and he took a thoughtful puff, staring at her long enough for Sakura to grow uncomfortable.

"Keep up your spar," he decided after a second, turning away. "I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Obito asked, and Asuma rolled his eyes.

"Your sensei here is a dumbass with no confidence," he told Sakura, and she had to strongly resist the urge to punch him right in the face. "He asked me to help you cause he wasn't sure he could come up with something that you could beat Gaara with." He laughed. "Who knows if anyone could. But I've got an idea. So stick around, will you?"

Then he was gone in a swirl of leaves, and Sakura and Obito were alone again.

"He's rude," Sakura said, her fist tightening around her sword. Obito grinned at her.

"He's honest," her sensei said, and Sakura realized for the first time in her life that Obito didn't realize just how amazing he was. "C'mon, let's take his advice. Taijutsu this time. He'll be back soon."

By the time Asuma returned, Sakura had several exciting new bruises.

"Here," he said, tossing something to her sensei. Sakura only saw a glimpse, but it looked like a small jar with a silver clasp. Obito popped it open and then cocked an eyebrow, glancing up at Asuma.

"So soon?" he asked, and Asuma snorted.

"Her control is exceptional," he said, and Sakura felt a flush of pride. "If she wants to do more than run away, she'll have to have something up her sleeve." Obito delicately plucked something out of the jar. It was a piece of plain white paper, Sakura realized, folded into a square.

"What do you mean, Asuma-sensei?" Sakura asked, feeling even more embarrassed at the urge she'd had to punch him. The man frowned.

"Gaara's a unique opponent," he said. "You'll need an equally unique jutsu to stand a chance. Academy stuff won't do."

"What kind of jutsu?" she asked, and the older man shrugged as Obito thoughtfully twirled the paper in his fingers.

"I dunno," he said, and Sakura felt a chill. "That's what we're going to find out." Beside her, Obito approached, extending the paper. He held it delicately between two fingers.

"Sakura," he said. She thought he seemed a little grave. "You probably don't recognize this, right?"

Sakura cocked her head. "It's paper, isn't it?" Obito laughed.

"Yeah, it's paper. But it's a special kinda paper," he said, and Sakura felt another jolt of embarrassment. "This is chakra inductive paper; it's made from special trees, like the founding trees, that are fed chakra from the day they're planted. It's very sensitive to molded chakra. We're going to use this to determine your elemental nature."

Elemental jutsu? Already? Even with her newfound determination, the notion just made Sakura feel uncertain. Even Naruto didn't have any elemental jutsu: Sasuke was the only person her age who she knew that did, and he had always been a prodigy. With just a month to train, could she really pick up a whole new skillset? Even if she did, would it be the right thing to face Gaara with? Even if she got a new jutsu, what could possibly surpass his sand shield?

Something must have shown on her face, because Obito chuckled. "This is a good place to start," he said, and recessed the paper into her hand. "Trust me. Just run your chakra through it."

Sakura did her best to banish her doubt, failed, and took the paper from Obito, holding it between her thumb and index finger. She focused, trying to push her chakra into it, and was astonished to find the paper soaked it up without effort, almost like a magnet. She barely needed to extend her chakra beyond her hand before the paper took it in.

The material crumpled, dampness racing up from where Sakura's fingers made contact, until the whole thing was drooping and wet. Obito pursed his lips as he watched, and Sakura looked up at him with uncertainty.

"Does that mean water?" she asked. The opposite of fire. Sasuke wouldn't be able to help her at all. In fact, she didn't know anyone who used water jutsu. Obito nodded, confirming her fear.

"Water," he said, half muttering. "Weak to Earth, too."

"That doesn't matter," Asuma said, crossing his arms. "It's not like she would be able to overwhelm Gaara's jutsu head to head anyway, no matter what she got done this month." He grinned. "In fact, it might help. He'll probably underestimate her, if he understands the elemental disadvantage."

Weak to Earth. Sakura stared at the paper, the world shrinking down to it. Even her elemental affinity was at a disadvantage against Gaara. Her bruises ached worse and worse, and her legs were shaking. Just a single morning of training with her sensei, and the uncertainty that she had started loathing so violently was already creeping back into her.

"Hey," her sensei said, and she snapped out of it, looking back at him. "Don't get sucked in."

"Sensei?"

"I know you're scared," he said. "But try not to think about that right now. You told me you wanted to fight, and I'm going to help you make that happen. Asuma too." He gestured at the other man, who was still standing there with his arms crossed. "We're going to train your ken and taijutsu the rest of the week, alright? If you want to stand up to Gaara, the first thing we've got to improve is your speed and stamina. Once that's at an acceptable level, we're going to move onto your affinity. Asuma and I will worry about that, so for now, just focus on yourself, okay?"

With the rising sun behind him, Sakura felt there was something more than ordinary to her sensei's words. She nodded, doing her best to internalize his words.

"Okay," she said, handing the damp paper back and drawing her sword. In response, her sensei drew his. "Okay. Then let's start again."

###

When Sakura arrived home two days later, shortly after sunset, her parents were waiting for her. She stumbled through the door, dead on her feet, and only realized she wasn't alone when there was a squeal of joy.

"Sakura!" That was her mother, who swept her up off the floor and crushed her to her chest, sending flares of pain up across her chest and back from the multitude of bruises there. "Congratulations!"

"Mom?" she mumbled, and her mother set her down, beaming at her.

"We heard the news as soon as we got back!" she said, and behind her Sakura's father stepped out into the entry hall, wearing an identical grin. "It's incredible, Sakura! You made it into the final on your very first time? We almost couldn't believe it!"

 _'I only made it because of my team,'_ Sakura thought, but she didn't speak her mind. She just smiled at her mother instead, enjoying her grin and the way she was squeezing her shoulders, even if it hurt a little.

"We heard about who you were up against too," her father said, his grin shrinking. "The Kazekage's son, huh?" He looked her up and down, and Sakura was suddenly very self conscious of the bruises covering her body. "Looks like you're taking it seriously."

She nodded. "I thought about just giving up, when the match was announced," she said, her eyes slipping closed in a too-long blink for a second. She really was exhausted. Obito-sensei had explained that he was trying to push her to her physical limit to expand her tolerance, and so far he'd done a serious job of it. "He killed that team from Stone by himself… but after what he did to the others, my classmates, I felt like I couldn't just forfeit." Her hands curled into fists, and her father watched her carefully.

"That's good," he said. Her mother was frowning, stepping back from her a little. "But, Sakura… sometimes it's okay to give up, you know?"

"What?" Sakura asked, and her father leaned against the hallway wall, stroking his chin.

"Honey, we just don't want you getting hurt," he said, and Sakura stared blankly at him. "You made it into the final; that alone is an incredible achievement. After that first C-Rank…" He trailed off. "I told you it was a wide world, remember? The Kazekage's son is another part of that. Sometimes, there are fights you can't win. In a situation like that, sometimes you just have to retreat. That's what being a ninja is."

"What are you saying?" Sakura asked, feeling herself start to tremble. "You don't want me to fight?"

"It's not that!" her mother said, shooting a glance back at her father. "We just don't want you to lose. That kid…" Her face twisted. "He's a monster. You know that, right?"

Sakura thought about the team from Stone, about how scared the boy who'd watched her from the ground had looked. About Shikamaru's leg, and Hinata's missing finger.

"I know," she said, her voice low, and her father narrowed his eyes.

"We'll talk about this later," he said, suddenly cheerful. "You look exhausted. C'mon: we both fixed dinner. It's been a while since we ate together."

He was right, and so Sakura followed them into the kitchen without protest. But inside her chest, something was boiling.

' _Sometimes, there are fights you can't win.'_

###

"Alright!" Obito set down both of the buckets he'd carried to the field, and Sakura gave them a doubtful look. It had been six days since their first day of training, and her sensei had told her he was satisfied with her progress. Sakura hadn't been sure, but she was already starting to feel stronger, lighter on her feet.

Her sensei had spent the last three days teaching her tricks for chakra control, all based on improving her speed and finesse. How to channel it to her legs in precise bursts for mid-combat shunshins, when to leap and when to roll. Sakura had always thought of chakra as just part of herself, an energy that danced beneath her skin, but Obito had opened her eyes to another reality. It wasn't just a burn that could carry her forward, it was a detonation that could hurl her at incredible speeds.

With hindsight, Sakura had realized that this was what Sasuke had been doing for as long as she'd known him: the secret to his explosive speed. It made her feel pretty incredible, to move in a way that made the world blur. She still wasn't even close to Obito, not even remotely, but by the fifth day, she'd at least understood how he'd gotten there.

"Stamina training is done for now," Obito said, telling her what she already knew. "We're gonna move onto nature control now." He grinned. "I'm gonna warn you right now: this is going to be _really_ boring."

"Boring?" Sakura gave the buckets another glance. They were both huge, bigger than her torso, nearly overflowing with water. "What do you mean, sensei?"

"Come here, and I'll show you." Obito beckoned her forward, and Sakura levered herself off the ground and hobbled over, her legs aching with both lactic acid and chakra shock. Tomorrow, she'd be strong, but today, she was just sore. It would always be that way.

"Now, watch carefully," Obito said, and he knelt down in front of one of the buckets. As Sakura watched, he placed one hand on the surface of the water and closed his eyes, focusing. Slowly, he drew his hand up, and the water followed it, stuck fast to his palm. He pulled it up one foot, two, and then after another couple inches he sighed and the small pillar of water collapsed, splashing back into the bucket.

"Water isn't my specialty," he said, rising back to his feet. "Like a lot of Uchiha, my nature is Fire. That said, I still have a lot more experience than you." He gestured to the ground in front of the bucket. "Grab a seat, okay?" Sakura obliged, coming down on both knees in front of the bucket.

"Start out with two hands, and control the water like I did. Bring it up to your head's level. When you've got that, we'll move onto the next stage, alright?" Obito took a step back, and Sakura nodded, bringing both hands down towards the water.

She placed both on the surface, and recalled the lessons of water walking. This was the same thing, she thought, just further abstracted. She molded chakra in her core, gently pushing it down her arms and into her hands and fingers. She felt her hands adhere to the water, and pulled it up.

The water came up willingly, but unlike the pillar Obito had created, Sakura was just left with a coating under her hands, like a layer of jello. She stared at it, and huffed in frustration. Duh. Water walking only adhered you to the top layer of water molecules. If she did the same thing here, she'd only take a bit of water with her.

She dropped her hands back down, totally absorbed in the task. Sakura had always been able to ignore the rest of the world for whatever was in front of her. It was what had served her so well academically, and what made it so easy for her to get lost in herself when she was full of doubt or fear. But right now, it was good. It was helpful. The only thing that existed in the world was her, her chakra, and the bucketful of water.

You have to go further than water walking, she told herself. If you want to create a pillar, your chakra needs to saturate the water and totally control it. Otherwise, it'll just collapse right away. She sent her chakra down, out of her hands, and into the water. To her anger, it dissipated almost immediately if it went too far from her hands. She probed deeper, trying to construct a spike of sorts that would permeate the water, but even that started to disintegrate with too much distance from her hands. She just couldn't project enough chakra outside her body in a consistent manner to saturate the water.

"It's not about saturation," her sensei suddenly said, and Sakura jerked, her heart skipping a beat. Obito was staring down at her and the water with his Sharingan active. He'd obviously been watching what she'd been trying to do. "Some people can pull that off, but you aren't one of them right now." He squatted down. "You can't just fill the water with your chakra: if you were doing that, it might even be more efficient to transform your own chakra into water." He waved off her question before she could voice it. "That's pretty advanced: you won't be learning it in a month, so we're not going to try."

"Then what's the trick?" Sakura asked. "If I can't fill the water up…" She resisted the urge to slap herself. "I've gotta shape it. That means covering it, right?" Obito smiled at her, and she felt her confidence spread through her chest like an oxygenated flame. "It's a liquid. I just need to give it a new container."

"Exactly right!" Obito clapped. "Like I told Asuma: you're a natural!" He stood back up, Sharingan slowly spinning. "Give it a try."

Sakura nodded and looked back down, flexing both her fingers and settling her palms on the water once more. This time, she went slower, channeling her chakra more cautiously. She mimicked the spike approach, but instead of sending it directly into the water, she sent her chakra out around her palms, keeping it active and ready. Her palms buzzed with the sensation, and she drew her hands up in a patient motion. To her delight, the water followed her. As it came up, Sakura sent more chakra down through her hands and into the water beneath it. Not to fill it up with her aura, but to surround it and create a buttress around the pillar that was steadily forming.

More and more water was drawn out of the bucket, and Sakura grew more and more confident. Her fingers closed in slightly, desperate to keep the pillar's shape. When it reached her chest level, the strain grew to be too much. She hadn't been efficient enough with her chakra, and she couldn't apply enough brute force to keep the water structure from wobbling.

Instead of fighting it, Sakura breathed out and let it collapse. Obito stepped forward, and she glanced up at him.

"I'm starting over," she said. He'd looked concerned for a second. Had he thought she'd given up? Like her parents thought she should? Sakura hoped not. Right now, it seemed like her team were the only people who thought she should actually fight Gaara. "I need a better foundation."

"Alright," her teacher said. "It's your show. If you need help, just ask, okay?"

Sakura nodded, but she didn't ask for help.

An hour later, she brought the pillar of water higher than her head, and held it there for two minutes before it collapsed. Obito watched the whole thing with a perplexed expression. Sakura wasn't sure why; had she done something wrong?

"Okay," he eventually said. "Okay then." He laughed and crossed his arms. "One hand now. Ready?"

Sakura nodded, and started again, ignoring the sweat pouring down her forehead. It took her another four hours to manage the same feat with one hand.

After that, Obito suggested they get some lunch. At first, Sakura wanted to keep going.

Then she realized she was wheezing with every breath.

"Yeah," she gasped. "Lunch would be good."

They had a hearty meal at a restaurant Sakura didn't know the name of; her sensei ordered her a plate full of rice, vegetables, meat, and an unidentifiable but delicious sauce, and Sakura worked through it with embarrassing speed. Afterwards, he sent her home.

"Chakra control tests aren't a joke," he told her. "This isn't going to be like training your speed. Projecting that much chakra out of your body is going to exhaust you in no time; if you want to be efficient you're going to be sleeping and eating a lot for the next couple weeks, so get used to it. Your chakra stamina is going to improve, but this first week will be rough. Accept that now, alright?"

Sakura nodded, feeling like her lips were gummed shut. In the moment, she'd been too thrilled to notice how tired she was. Now, she could barely feel her limbs. She was just a head and a floating torso, wobbling through the village vaguely in the direction of her home. When she reached her door, she didn't even knock. She just stumbled inside.

Her mother was home, and met her in the hall. "Sakura?" she asked, and to Sakura it seemed that her mother's voice was echoing down to her. "Home so early?"

"Chakra control," she said, her words slightly slurring. "Sensei said sleep."

Her mother said some other stuff, but Sakura barely heard it as she was herded up the stairs to her room. She collapsed in her bed, and her mother helped her undress. As she slipped under the covers and into sleep, the same thought was playing in her exhausted brain on repeat.

' _I gotta get stronger. Tomorrow, I'll go longer.'_

She didn't wake up until the sun had set.


	20. The Second Week

Mothers

When Naruto drove his Rasengan into the tree, the whole thing pretty much exploded. He glanced over his shoulder and beamed, and at the end of the clearing his mother sarcastically clapped once.

"Well done," she said with a twinkle in her eye. "You've murdered a helpless tree."

"Yeah," Naruto admitted. "But it's like, _super_ murdered, right?" He gestured at what was left, barely a stump sticking out of the ground. "That's good, y'know? It means my control's getting better!"

"That's true," Kushina admitted, walking forward and examining the stump. "But you're not planning on using that jutsu on Sasuke, are you?"

"No way." Naruto shook his head. "It's way too dangerous. I wouldn't want to kill him!"

"That's good." His mother smiled. "Still, it is pretty impressive Naruto. Good job."

"Thanks!" He rubbed the back of his head, beaming. Kushina wasn't slow to praise him, but Naruto always took every bit he got with the same amount of gratitude. He looked down at his hand, tightening it into a fist. "Even if it's not gonna be a super serious fight, I still don't wanna lose to him."

"I'm sure he's feeling the same way," his mom told him with a grin. "Especially if I know Mikoto. No doubt she's training with him, and pretty hard."

"Yeah…" Naruto looked around. "Where's dad? I thought he told you he'd drop by."

His mother frowned. Naruto was used to his dad being busy. He was the Hokage, after all. But lately, he'd been seeing less and less of them. He wasn't really worried about it, but he was starting to notice the absence.

"Still sorting things out with Stone and Sand," she said, and Naruto felt a frown of his own come on. That creepy bastard. It really was all his fault. "You know, with that genin team."

"Yeah," he muttered. "Yeah, I bet."

"How's Sakura doing?" his mom asked, shifting the subject. "She never came by again."

"She's training her ass off," Naruto said frankly, and his mother rolled her eyes.

"Language," she tsked, and Naruto laughed.

"I dunno what else to call it!" he said, flopping down onto his butt. "I've only seen her and Obito twice in like, two weeks!" Just like his dad, he was starting to miss her. "And both times I did, she was all covered in bruises-" he made a rubbing motion of his face and arms, "and super pale. Obito told me she was pushing herself really hard; almost into chakra exhaustion, every day."

"She's taking it seriously," Kushina said, and Naruto nodded.

"She saw that guy, when he said he was supposed to kill me," he said, a little subdued. "And he fought that team from Stone alongside the Rain guys too. They weren't pushovers. If Gaara really killed all of them…" He sighed, trying not to think about it. Whenever he did, he got scared. He didn't want Sakura to die. Even imagining it made him shiver. "Yeah. She's taking it seriously."

"Good," Kushina said, sitting down next to him. "If she knows that, then Obito will know too. He'll make sure she's ready by the end of the month."

"I hope so," Naruto said, twiddling with the grass at his feet. "I don't… all she's got is her sword. She's really good with it, but against that guy's sand?" He plucked up several blades and threw them away. Hey, he thought, that was a neat metaphor. "He took on Team Eight and Ten at the same time and won."

"Yeah, that's pretty scary," his mom said, which didn't make him feel better. "But you'll just have to trust her and Obito, and your dad. Sakura wants to fight, and they won't let her die."

"Dad?" Naruto asked, and his mom tapped her nose knowingly.

"If she really gets in trouble, he'll bail her out." She laughed. "The same goes for Gaara, if she trains enough. Who knows. The point is, he's unwilling to let anyone else die."

"That's good." Hearing that mollified him a little bit, but Naruto still felt himself plucking at the grass. "But y'know, dad always says being a shinobi is about sacrifice. Wouldn't that..."

"Everyone has their own way of being a shinobi," Kushina said. "That's just your father; a lesson he learned the hard way, I think." She smiled sadly. "Being Hokage is a difficult job."

"S'why I never wanted it," Naruto said, half-joking. He bobbed his head thoughtfully. "Kabuto said the same thing, about shinobi."

"Kabuto?" his mom asked. "The guy from Rain?"

"Yeah," Naruto said. He'd told both his parents about the Rain team, but not much more than their names. "When we were at the tower, he told us that everyone had their own reason. Every shinobi, I mean." He looked up thoughtfully. "Cause Lee said that being a shinobi was about seeking out a powerful foe. So I guess he didn't really agree with that."

"Well, that's a pretty mature thing to say," Kushina said with a little laugh.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, and his mother shifted a little, glancing at the Hokage monument. It was partly obscured behind some trees, but still stared out over the village.

"A lot of ninja wouldn't put it that way," Kushina said. "They think that their way of being a shinobi, whether it's looking for someone strong, or killing enemies of the village, or being a tool, enduring, sacrificing…" She trailed off. "They can't look at it another way. They just call it wrong, and move on."

"Kabuto wasn't the only one who was a little weird like that," Naruto said. "They all were. That whole team. Maybe the whole Rain village is like that."

"They're some strange ones," Kushina said with a smile. "But the Akatsuki has always been honest in its beliefs." Her smile vanished. "Even if they can be a little extreme."

"How?" Naruto asked, and his mother shook her head.

"It's not really important right now. Are you going to keep training?"

"Nah." He lay back with his hands behind his head. "I'm kinda bored." He grinned and rolled backwards, coming to his feet. "I think I'll go bother Sasuke instead." He stuck out his tongue.  
"Don't want him training when I'm not!"

Kushina laughed. "You go do that then," she said. "Say hi to Mikoto for me, will you?"

Naruto nodded and jogged away, faintly humming a discordant tune. Kushina watched him go with a faint smile. Unbeknownst to him, just before he went out of sight her eyes narrowed. Her focus shifted to the left, and chakra began actively coursing through her body.

At an invisible signal and in a moment so short it didn't really exist, the Hidden Leaf's greatest weapon was entirely prepared for a fight.

"And what," Kushina muttered under her breath as she silently began stalking forward, "are _you_ up to?"

###

"Sit down," Sasuke's mother said, and he did, plopping down on the ground and examining his work with a critical eye. All eight of the posts on the other end of the throwing range were covered in a comical amount of shuriken. It had reached the point after nearly two hours of practice that he'd been aiming for the space in between the steel.

He'd landed far more than he'd missed, but anxiety was still twisting Sasuke's gut into knots. It was a warm and sunny day, especially for January, but Sasuke couldn't feel the sun on his neck and arms. He felt cold and distant, even with his mother only a couple feet away.

"Not good enough," he muttered, and his mother narrowed her eyes.

"Better than anyone else your age," she said, her tone sharp, and Sasuke grunted.

"I never was able to get close to him," he said, tossing one of his last shuriken into the ground. "Shurikenjutsu, ninjutsu, taijutsu…" He gritted his teeth. "Even now."

"You can't compare yourself to Itachi," Mikoto said. Sasuke looked up at her; she was completely expressionless. "It's a fool's errand."

"You don't think I can catch him?" Sasuke asked, his voice low, and his mother sighed.

"I don't think it's your _responsibility_ ," she said. "It never has been. It's something you took on yourself, Sasuke. I allowed it because it helped you deal with what happened, but-"

"You _allowed_ it?" Sasuke snapped back. "He's my brother, and your son! You should feel the same way I do!" He shot to his feet, face twisting. "Itachi is _our_ responsibility!"

His mother watched him carefully, and Sasuke's anger faded and gave way to embarrassment. He shuffled his feet, glad the training ground they'd come to was empty. It had been like this since the forest, he thought. He felt like he didn't have any control of himself, and of his feelings: Itachi had broken his composure along with his arm, but the first couldn't be healed by any jutsu.

"I'm sorry," he said after a couple seconds, and his mother nodded, taking the apology with grace. He found himself looking at the scars on her face, feeling something curdle in his heart. "But I can't… I don't understand him, and I can't let him get away."

"It's normal to seek answers, and revenge," his mother said with a frown. "But you've been moving from that towards an obsession, Sasuke. I don't like seeing that in my son."

"What should I do then?" Sasuke asked, starting to pace. "Just let him get away? Forget him? He came back, just for me..." He paused, and suppressed a sneer. "For my eyes, probably. I'll never be able to ignore him, so long as he's alive."

"Of course not." His mother shook her head. "Just… allow yourself some distance."

"Meaning?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"Your brother died that night," Mikoto said bluntly. "Whoever killed your father and so many other Uchiha, that wasn't the Itachi anyone there knew. He'd been growing more distant for some time… but not towards anything that would indicate _that_." She closed her eyes, and for a moment Sasuke saw in his mother a fragility and fatigue that he'd never seen before. Never allowed himself to see, he wondered, or never been allowed to? Mikoto Uchiha had always been composed and disciplined; it could have been both, or neither.

"You're the only son I have," she said after a moment of thought. "The man who's taken your brother's name is just an imposter." She held up a hand at Sasuke's questioning look. "Not literally. I'm not crazy, obviously. But that's the distance I'm talking about." Her cold facade cracked again, just for a second. "You've got to learn to seperate the Itachi that was your brother, and the Itachi that broke your arm, Sasuke. If you don't… you'll never be able to accept reality."

Sasuke wasn't sure if that would work for him, but it made sense to him that was what his mother must have done. What else could she do, with her prodigy son turning on his family so violently? They'd never talked about this in such detail before; to his mother, the Itachi that had loved them and the Itachi that had tried to kill them were totally separate people.

But then, Sasuke thought, maybe they really were. If someone became another person who only looked and acted like their past self, was it really strange to say they were someone else entirely? Maybe not.

Maybe that was the distance he needed to resolve the question that was always burning him down from the inside out. To just… reject the premise.

His brother was dead. His business was with his doppelganger

"Okay," he said. They'd been standing in silence for almost a minute, his mother watching him with crossed arms. "I'll think about that."

"Okay," his mother echoed him with a faint smile. "It's hard, you know."

"I know."

Her smile grew a little more genuine. "But we can do it together."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at that, and his mother laughed. "That's the principle of the village! Teamwork is always superior to working alone."

Sasuke frowned. "If that's the case," he said, "why is the final for the exam single elimination matches?" His mother frowned back, and he continued. "And why was I put up against Naruto? If that's the core of Konoha… that doesn't really make sense." He looked up at the sky, blue and bright. "I didn't really think about it, with Sakura up against Gaara."

"That's a good question," Mikoto said with a nod. "The Final Exam isn't really an expression of the village. It's a show, to put it bluntly."

"A show?"

"The most powerful people from across the Land of Fire and beyond will be coming to watch," Mikoto said. "That's why the matches are one on one, so that they'll be easy for non-shinobi to follow. Essentially, it's an exhibition." She mockingly strutted back and forth, throwing her voice slightly. "Oh, look how powerful our young shinobi are, please hire them right away," she said, before laughing. "A glorified interview."

"An interview? Haven't we already proven ourselves? Isn't that what the academy is?" Sasuke asked, feeling some of his anxiety leach away, being replaced by curiosity. He rarely heard his mother speak like this.

"Yeah, to the village. But that's the dichotomy of being a ninja nowadays," Mikoto said. "There's being a shinobi in the village, and there's the image you have to present outside of it. Some people have trouble reconciling that." She grinned. "That's why you should have fun with your fight with Naruto. I know you both want to win, but you should be trying to make it as flashy as possible. The ninja there will already know you're worthy. You don't need to worry about impressing _them_."

"Naruto's probably hearing the same thing," Sasuke said, and his mother nodded.

"Without a doubt."

"And what about Sakura?" he asked, and his mother grew more subdued. "What's her interview then?"

"Gaara of the Desert already has a reputation," Mikoto said bluntly. "If Sakura survives, she'll have succeeded. That's all she needs to do."

"That's..."

"Cruel, yeah." Mikoto shrugged. "But that's how it is. You've got some company, by the way."

She gestured, and Sasuke looked back over his shoulder to find Naruto waving at him from across the field.

"Hey!" his teammate called, and Sasuke grinned.

"Slacking already?" he called, and Naruto scowled.

"Says you!" he shot back, and Sasuke laughed. "You're the one sitting around! Got tired of tossing stars so quickly!?"

Sasuke glanced back at the hundreds of shuriken dotting the posts, and then looked back at Naruto with a flat expression. His friend cracked up after a moment.

"Fine!" he admitted. "You got me there." He started walking forward, and Sasuke went to meet him, leaving his mother behind. "I got bored. I wanted to see how you guys were doing!"

"I'm doing fine. Do you mean Sakura?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto nodded.

"We haven't seen her in forever," he said, kicking at the ground. "I wanna check on her."

Sasuke looked back at his mother, and she grinned and made a shooing motion. "Breaks are important," she said. "Go check on your friend. She and Obito are at training ground eighty-eight, last I checked."

Pretty close, as far as that went in the sprawling expanse of Konoha. Sasuke nodded, and Naruto waved.

"Mom says hi!" he shouted as they jogged away. "We'll see you later!"

Sasuke waved as well, but he wasn't thinking about 'later'. He was thinking about what his mother had said about his dead brother, and Sakura.

' _Cruelty is how it is,'_ he thought, and he was a little surprised at the clarity and viciousness of the thought as he and Naruto left the field.

###

When her teammates found her, Sakura was doing the same thing she had done every day for over eight hours straight for the last two weeks. Both of her hands were submerged in buckets of water on either side of her, and she was deep in something she had almost started thinking of as meditation, pulling the water out of the buckets and commanding it with her chakra.

She had moved beyond pillars by the end of the first week. Obito and Asuma-sensei had told her to try more complicated shapes than stacks of water, and Sakura had followed their advice. It had been impossibly challenging at first to guide the water into anything more complicated than a split pillar, but time and practice had made it easier and easier.

Now, she wasn't getting tired so fast, even if she sometimes had to close her eyes and center herself, to take stock of the tingling across her body as chakra poured out of her hands and left her hollow and light, like an empty glass.

Now, she was making flowers instead of pillars. It was the same basic shape, projecting the water upwards, but the difference was at the top, where her chakra split the water out into wide petals. Keeping the water suspended in that shape in defiance of gravity was a gratifying challenge.

Now, at the end of the second week, the flowers were becoming as simple to Sakura as the pillars had been. She'd have to move on soon, to keep challenging herself.

"Sakura?"

She yelped, the flowers collapsing back into the buckets at her sides as her hands instinctively clenched into fists, and opened her eyes. Naruto and Sasuke were standing in front of her, peering at her inquisitively: Naruto was practically glowing red.

"Sorry!" he said, and Sasuke chuckled. "We didn't mean to… that was really cool!"

"Naruto? Sasuke?" Sakura shook her head, trying to center herself. "Where'd you guys come from?"

"We walked right up," Sasuke said matter of factly, and Sakura felt herself blush. She really had been so caught up in the exercise that she hadn't even heard them approach. "So you've moved on, huh?" He looked around as Sakura pulled herself off the ground, feeling a little woozy now that her concentration had been broken. "Where's sensei?"

Huh. That was the first time Sakura had heard him call Obito that. "He left," she said, fumbling for her sword, which she had laid out behind her. "To get some lunch for us." As she picked it up, she frowned. Asuma had taken the blade from her two days ago, and returned it the next. Ever since then the balance had been just slightly different. Not enough to be truly different, but enough for Sakura to notice. She hadn't bothered to ask what Asuma had needed her sword for, and he hadn't told her.

If he was going to, he would when he needed to, she was sure.

"He's not back already? He didn't use the Kamui?" Naruto asked, and Sakura laughed and shook her head. It was good to hear his voice, even though it hadn't been that long.

"Asuma-Sensei called him lazy for teleporting all the time," she said, and Naruto laughed too. "Said he should try running, like a real ninja."

"Well, maybe he's right," Naruto joked. "I mean, I get it, if I could teleport everywhere-"

"Like your dad?" Sasuke suggested, and Naruto snapped his fingers.

"Hey, yeah, he does the same thing!" he said with a thoughtful look. "Do you think he taught Obito-Sensei to use it like that, or the other way around?"

"The first," Sasuke said, and Sakura secured her sword and walked up to her teammates. "My mother is always saying that your dad's the laziest Hokage we've ever had."

"Ha!" Naruto crossed his arms. "That's just 'cause he gets so much done, there's nothing left to do after a while!"

"Sure," Sasuke said dryly. He looked to Sakura. "What do you think, Sakura? Lazy, or efficient?"

Sakura didn't answer. She was too busy looking over his shoulder. Her mouth had gone dry.

"Sakura?" Naruto asked. "What-?" He looked back, following her gaze.

Gaara of the Desert was glowering at them from the shadow of a tree about thirty meters away, his hands rhythmically opening and closing, his chest heaving. His eyes were wide, unblinking, and focused directly on Naruto.

' _What?'_ Sakura thought, and even though Gaara couldn't possibly hear the thought, it was as though it triggered him to take action. His hands closed into fists, and he started slowly walking forward. _'What? It's only the second week. I'm not ready. Why is he here?'_

It was a stupid thought, and Sakura recognized that immediately. Gaara obviously wasn't here for her.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, and Sakura's fugue broke. She drew her slightly too heavy sword, and Sasuke pulled a knife from his hip. They both jumped to Naruto's side, presenting a united front against the ninja from Suna.

Gaara didn't care. He just kept stalking forward, eyes fixed on Naruto.

"Get out of here, you freak!" Naruto shouted, and the boy flinched. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" The words were harsh, but he sounded terrified.

"You're very irritating," Gaara muttered, his pace never changing. His arms swayed from side to side, like he was sleepwalking, barely in control of his body. Sakura felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up, and her hands tightened around her sword. "I already told you how it is. It's your destiny for me to kill you." His eyes flicked between Sakura and Sasuke. "I'm not interested in your teammates. If they leave, I'll even let them live."

"As if," Sasuke said, and Sakura nodded, raising her sword.

Gaara didn't pause or even hesitate, like Sakura had quietly hoped he would.

Instead, he smiled.

"Fine," he said, only fifteen meters away now. "That might be more fun."

She wasn't ready to fight. She wasn't ready for this fight. Would she ever be ready for this fight? Sakura felt one of her feet sliding back and steadied herself, trying to analyze the situation. What could she do against his sand with her sword? Nothing. None of them had anything that would work, even the Rasengan. Charging in would just get them cut or crushed.

Thirteen meters. She started backing up, and Naruto and Sasuke followed her, keeping at her side. They had to stay out of Gaara's range; he hadn't struck yet, but he surely would soon.

A tongue of sand crept up out of the gourd on Gaara's back, and for the third time in her life, Sakura accepted the possibility of her death.

" _Stop_."

Sakura looked up, and something fast and red landed in front of her and her team, sending them stumbling back in shock. After a moment, they recognized the new arrival.

"Mom?!" Naruto asked, and Kushina Uzumaki didn't even look back at him. She was completely focused on Gaara. Sakura couldn't see her face, but for the first time the boy paused. More sand poured out of his gourd, tentatively floating around him.

After two weeks of working with water, Sakura couldn't help but appreciate the insane level of control and power that must have been necessary to maintain the sand in the air like that. Could she do that with water particles? Maybe, but it would just form a mist. Would that even be useful?

She was, as usual, overthinking things. Kushina took a step forward, and to her astonishment Sakura saw a golden light start to pulse in the small of the woman's back. What kind of jutsu was that?

"Turn around and walk away, right now." Kushina's voice was steel. "You shouldn't be here."

" _You_ aren't my mother," Gaara said, putting a peculiar stress on each word, and Kushina shook her head. Sakura caught a glimpse of her face; she was wearing a furious scowl.

"That thing isn't either," she said, and Gaara sneered.

" _Liar_ ," he growled, and more sand poured out of his gourd, so much that Sakura wasn't even sure it could hold it all. "Liar liar liar liar _liar_." The sand spread out around him, pooling at his feet. "Mother says I need to kill you too." He said it pensively, like someone had just whispered it in his ear. "I guess I'll just kill all of you."

Kushina grunted, and the light on her back exploded, resolving itself into two golden chains. As Sakura and her teammates watched, frozen with shock and awe, the chains darted forward, towards Gaara. The boy nodded, and his sand rose up in dozens of tendrils, walls, and other obstructions, trying to snare the chains.

But Kushina's jutsu danced through everything, so quickly that Sakura could only see the golden afterimage. Gaara's eyes grew wide as the chain's drew closer, and he sent more sand after them, but Kushina's jutsu dodged everything, whipping to and fro like wild snakes.

Unbelievable. Totally unbelievable. The jutsu was so fast and so flexible that Gaara's sand, which had stopped two teams at once, couldn't even touch it. Kushina twitched, and the chains surged forward. Sakura blinked, and they were through the sand, through a hole in Gaara's defenses. They rushed towards the boy's chest and head-

"Enough!" The chains stopped before the voice had even cleared the training ground, and Gaara's sand rushed up, wrapping around them and trying to crush them. Kushina clenched a fist, and they evaporated in a rush of golden chakra, leaving Gaara clutching at nothing.

There was a man under the same tree Gaara had been. He was tall, with tanned skin and dark red hair.

"Lord Kazekage," Kushina said, and Sakura was surprised the man didn't melt into a puddle of acid and bile from Kushina's tone alone. "How good of you to join us." The glow in her back fully vanished, and Gaara growled, beginning to advance.

"Gaara," the Kazekage said, and his son stopped, eyes wide. "I said _enough._ "

For a moment, it looked like the boy might tear himself in two, yearning to press forward but kept back by something like fear, if he could feel it at all. But it was only a moment, and Gaara relented, his sand sulkily sliding back into his gourd as he stood stock still, staring at Naruto and his mother.

"Tell me," Kushina said, "were you planning to restrain him before or after he murdered my son?"

"A shinobi cannot murder, or be murdered, Uzumaki," the Kazekage said with a faint sneer. "But if you are so concerned, I would not have allowed this to proceed."

"How comforting," Kushina said, taking a deep breath.

Naruto stepped forward. "You're the Kazekage? You're his dad?" He looked between the two of them, and Sakura did too. She could see a resemblance. Their faces were very similar, the same way Kushina and Naruto's were. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"He doesn't have much tact, does he?" the Kazekage noted, and Kushina glanced down at her son. Sakura wondered how she'd ended up here, going from meditating with her water-flowers to Naruto insulting the Kage of an allied village in just minutes.

"I didn't hear anything out of line," she said, and the Kage snorted.

"I'll forgive that, for today," he said, turning away. "Gaara. Follow."

It was like a command for a dog, not a human being, and Gaara resisted it for a moment. His father crossed his arms and tapped one finger against his shoulder, and something golden and shimmering rose up around him, like an aura of tiny particles. "Now."

"Another time," Gaara eventually said, his eyes going dead and flat, and he turned to follow his father. Team Seven and Kushina watched him go the whole length of the training yard, and when they were finally at something resembling a safe distance the Kazekage turned. He wasn't looking at Naruto, or Kushina, or even Sasuke, but at Sakura. She blinked at the sudden attention. The man didn't look angry, or even irritated. He just regarded her with something that looked uncomfortably like pity.

"A word of advice, girl," he said, and Sakura felt herself bristle at the appellation. "It doesn't matter how much you train. If you step foot in the arena with Gaara, he will kill you." He turned around, waving dismissively. "If you want to live, you'll surrender. I can restrain him here; that won't be my duty during the Exam."

And with that, he and his son were gone in a flicker of sand and gold.

"Asshole," Kushina spat, turning around to face them. "You guys all okay?"

"Yeah." Sakura nodded, but found that her hands were shaking. She looked down at them, the Kazekage's words ringing in her ears.

' _He will kill you.'_

"Was he following me?" Naruto asked, and his mother nodded.

"How long? Why did you stop him?" Sasuke asked, and Kushina frowned.

"For a while. Since Naruto left to find you guys," she said. "I noticed right away, but I couldn't risk stopping him by myself, at least not until he got ready to attack. He's still a guest in the village, and the Kazekage's son besides… even if he doesn't treat him that way." Her lip curled in disgust. "What a horrible man."

"Horrible men make horrible children," Sakura said faintly, and Kushina gave her a surprised look. "My mother says that sometimes," she said, her head still ringing.

_'He will kill you.'_

"He was talking shit, you know," Kushina said, and Sakura looked up in surprise at her coarse language. "We won't let you die. The village won't let you die, not in a match against that guy. It's not happening."

"Sure," Sakura said. "I know."

But saying it out loud just made it more absurd. What could anyone do, even Kushina, or the Hokage, or her own parents, if Gaara caught her in his sand? What could they do if he started squeezing the life out of her, crushed her sword, crushed her bones?

Nothing. If that happened, they wouldn't be able to do a damn thing.

_'If you step foot in the arena with Gaara, he will kill you.'_

Sakura shivered.

###

**AN: I just wanna stick a quick apology in here. I've been trying to stick you a weekly update schedule for Obito-Sensei, and up until this chapter I was managing that. I got caught up in some personal difficulties (though to be honest, who doesn't have their fair share of those right now), and that got this relatively simple chapter pushed back. Hopefully, next week will mark a return to a normal update schedule. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	21. The Third Week

Jutsu

Eleven days before the final, Sakura had moved on from water flowers. The shapes she was making with the water were growing more and more abstract, ever more bold in their construction and defiance of physics. She'd begun trying to form full kanji, and though it was just as challenging as the flowers had been at first, Sakura knew exactly what that meant: that she would get it in time.

But no matter what she did, all it was in the end was shapes with the water. Three weeks now of the same thing, pausing for nothing but eating and sleeping. Sakura could count the real conversations she'd had for the month on one hand. She was starting to feel distant from herself, her mouth clamped shut from exhaustion, her tongue always dry. When she did speak, it was inevitably quiet and hoarse.

Sakura Haruno no longer felt like herself. It was getting harder for her to distinguish herself from the buckets of water she was working with every day, filled up with chakra when the sun rose and empty and soaked when it set. In some moments of clarity, she had wondered if this was why her sensei hadn't started them on nature manipulation earlier. This was no way to live.

But Sakura didn't want to die, so she didn't say anything. She just kept making shapes, trying to increase her complexity and control by any small degree.

Asuma and Obito were often keeping her company while she trained. Keeping watch over her, maybe. Gaara wasn't interested in her, that was obvious, but her sensei had reacted poorly to the boy from Sand approaching them.

For the last week, he and Asuma had argued, often, about every subject under the sun. It was obvious to Sakura that the only thing that they had in common was the village, and her. It didn't matter what the subject was: tactics, food, fashion, or gossip, the son of the Third Hokage and the student of the Fourth didn't seem to agree on a single thing.

Eight days before the finale, Sakura formed her name with the water. She opened her eyes and regarded it, barely recognizing the loops and curls that formed her identity. It shimmered with an inner light, the water pulsing through the construct at high speed. Sakura had figured out that was the simplest way to keep complicated shapes in one piece: the momentum of both the liquid and her chakra helped stabilize them. Not nearly enough to be freestanding, of course, but every little bit helped.

"How stupid can you… hey now, that's a pretty good one." Asuma wandered over, analyzing the name with obvious interest. "That's well done, Sakura. How long do you think you could hold it?"

"It doesn't matter how long she can hold it," Obito said a little grumpily as he walked over. "That doesn't-"

"It's good for her control," Asuma said, cutting him off. "Consistency is even more important than power, _Obito_."

"Funny to hear you talking about consistency," Obito shot back. Sakura kept staring at her name, wavering in the air. How long could she hold this? A minute? No, much longer than that, she was sure.

" _I'm_ here to help _you_ ," Asuma said with a laugh. "You brought me on for my advice, and now you want to shoot me down? What do you think you're pulling?" He turned back to her, Sakura barely registering the movement in her peripheral vision. "Can you move the kanji around? That would be a good-."

"Shut up," Sakura muttered, and then clammed up immediately, unable to believe what she'd just said.

Shut up? Had she really just…?

_'Shut up.'_

"Shut up?" Asuma blinked. "Pardon?"

"Sakura?" Her sensei tilted his head, looking down at her with concern. Sakura realized she was starting to breathe heavily. Her name shimmered one more time and then dissolved, collapsing into the bucket.

Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up.

"Shut up," she said again, louder this time, and closed her eyes. "I'm done, so can you both please just… shut up."

"Sakura." Obito knelt down, bringing his face levels with her. "What do you mean?"

"I'm done," Sakura said, her voice shaking. She hated that, but she couldn't do anything about it. LIke this whole thing. She couldn't take it anymore. The world felt like it was spinning under her, leaving her behind. Vertigo was swimming behind her eyes. "I give up. I'm going to forfeit."

She remembered her treasonous thoughts from so long ago, when the only thing she'd been able to think about was her anger. No, that wasn't right. When her anger hadn't made her _care_ about anything else.

_'You're stupid if you think that will last forever. When the month's done, will you still be angry?'_

Obito didn't say anything. He just let her drown in her own silence, the only sound her own deafening breath. Asuma watched from behind him, his arms crossed. She couldn't read either of them. Her vision was blurring. Was she crying?

"Why now?" her sensei finally asked. "You've already come so far. Why give up now?"

"Because we haven't done anything!" The words burst out of Sakura, steadily ratcheting up to a scream, and she shot to her feet, knocking down one of the buckets with her knee. "I've just been messing around with water this whole time! Making shapes and nothing else!" She kicked the other bucket over, and Asuma laughed. Sakura glared at him, and the laughter died in his throat. "And you two have just been arguing about _nothing_ this whole time, like a bunch of idiots! And you messed up my sword!"

She sobbed, her voice cracking. "You said you were going to help me, but I haven't gotten any stronger! I don't know anything new! When I saw Gaara that day, I knew he'd be able to kill me like it was _nothing_! Like I was nothing! I _knew_! Nothing's changed! All this training has been _nothing_!" She screamed the last word, doubling over and pouring her whole soul out into the word, and was left hollow afterwards, staring at the wet grass and feeling tears dripping down off her cheeks.

"I'm done," she whispered, her throat painfully rough. "I don't want to die. That bastard can have my spot. I don't deserve it anyway."

Her sensei gave her a bit more silence after that. Eventually, he stood back up.

"Alright," he said, and Sakura looked up at him. "We're done, then." He glanced back at Asuma, and the other man shrugged.

"If that's how it is," he said with a sour grin.

"What?" Sakura asked, and Obito refocused back on her. He was expressionless, his eyes flat.

' _Wait.'_

"You said we're done, Sakura," he said, his voice like a hammer. "So, we're done."

"Sensei…" Sakura didn't know what to say. Her insides were churning. Wasn't this what she wanted?

"If you want to try again, I'll be here tomorrow." Still flat. Still no judgement, no enthusiasm, no life of any kind. Obito crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing. "But for now, go home, Sakura. Get some rest." He turned to leave. "Think about what you really want."

Sakura had nothing to say, and neither did her sensei or Asuma. They left her standing there, silent and empty.

' _What did I just do?'_

Eventually, at least a couple minutes later, Sakura snapped out of her fugue and realized she was just standing there, staring at nothing, barely breathing.

' _Wasn't this what I wanted?'_

She left the field and the buckets, her hand wrapping itself around her sword unconsciously. She squeezed the hilt rhythmically, echoing her pounding heart, as she made her way through the streets of Konoha and towards her home. The village was bright and full of life as usual, but Sakura spoke to no-one, and no-one noticed her. To the world she was just another tired ninja trudging home a shortly after noon.

Sakura didn't notice when she made it back to her home. She was just…

Disappointed.

"Sakura!" Her mother was in the entryway putting her shoes on when Sakura stepped through the door. "You're home early!" She paused, examining Sakura's face. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Sakura muttered, stepping past her and up the stairs. Her mother turned, following her.

"Not real convincing," she pointed out, and Sakura felt her heart jolt in her chest. "Are you alright? You look pale."

Sakura had never told her parents what had happened the week before with Gaara, and so far as she knew neither had anyone else. Right then, halfway up the stairs, she wondered why that was. Had she been too tired to? Or had that just been an excuse?

"I told…" she said, and then stopped, swallowing her tongue.

_'Sometimes, there are fights you can't win.'_

"What? What is it, honey?" Her mother stepped closer, their heads drawing level on the stairs, and Sakura turned around, tears beading in her eyes. "Oh, Sakura…"

"I told sensei I was done," she said, struggling to form the words. "I told him I'd forfeit."

"Sakura…" Her mother took another step forward, putting her arms out. Her hands settled on Sakura's shoulders, pulling her forward a little. She was staring into her eyes. "You're sure?"

Sakura's throat clenched, and she nodded, her vision blurring. "Okay." Her mother pulled her into a hug, resting her head on her shoulder. Sakura shuddered, her whole body shaking. "It's okay."

"It's not…" Sakura gasped for air. "I'm not…"

"Just shh," her mother said, the words harsh but her tone soft, and Sakura sobbed, collapsing into her.

She was scared. She didn't know how to express that. Behind all the exhaustion, the anger, the tears, Sakura was just scared. The fear was eating her up from below, dragging her down into something dark and cloying.

' _I don't want to die.'_ That was all that Sakura had been able to think as she lay in bed gradually slipping into sleep for the last three weeks. That was the core of the anger, she was sure, that selfish fear, not the altruistic rage she'd assume it was. _'I don't want what happened to them to happen to me.'_

Her mother held her there on the stairs as she cried for one minute, maybe two, before pulling back and wiping some of the tears from her eyes. She was crying too, Sakura saw. Not as much as she had been, but a little.

"C'mon," Mebuki said with a little smile. "Let's go sit down, alright?"

Sakura was led down the stairs, away from her room, and her mother sat her down at the kitchen table. She walked away and came back with a glass of ice water and an apple, setting both down in front of her daughter.

"Eat," her mother said, and Sakura listlessly devoured the apple, only now realizing how hungry she was. Mebuki sat down, watching Sakura carefully as she finished the apple and began downing the water alongside it.

"I'm really proud of you, Sakura," she said, and Sakura almost choked on her water.

"What?" Of everything she'd expected out of her mother, that hadn't even come into consideration. What could there possibly be for her to be proud about?

"No matter what, you were really brave, you know," Mebuki said, leaning forward and propping her chin up with her hand. She smiled. "Training to go up against that guy was brave… but forfeiting is too."

"That's stupid," Sakura said, taking another sip of water. She hiccuped. "What's brave about giving up?"

"Nothing," Mebuki said, shaking her head. "But telling your sensei, and doing it when you were going to have the eyes of the whole village on you… that takes a lot of courage."

"It just makes me a coward," Sakura said, and her mother frowned.

"What's cowardly about knowing your limits?" she asked, and Sakura dropped her head.

"That's not-"

"What's cowardly about not throwing your life away?" Mebuki pressed, and Sakura closed her mouth. "What's cowardly about choosing your fights?"

"This fight was chosen for me!" Sakura said, feeling some life kindle in her chest, and her mother clucked her tongue.

"By random chance. But even that's wrong!" she declared, standing up out of her chair. "That's what's been frustrating your father and me, you treating this like you've got no choice! But you've always got a choice! _You're_ the only person who picks your fights, Sakura!"

"I _wanted_ this fight!" Sakura said, standing up too, her fist clenching around the glass. Her mother gave it a pointed look, and she set it down carefully, not wanting to shatter it. "I wanted to make him pay for what he did to Hinata, and Shikamaru, and everyone else!"

"Then why are you forfeiting?" Mebuki asked, and Sakura snarled.

" _Because I don't think I_ _can win_ ," she said, and her mother nodded.

"That's what keeps you from being a coward," she said, and Sakura stiffened. "If you were giving up just because you were scared… that wouldn't be a good look." She leaned down, placing her hand flat on the table. "But Sakura, even if you're scared, I can tell _that's not why you're giving up_."

"But I am scared!" Sakura almost shouted, and her mother laughed.

"But you just said it yourself!" she said, looking like she was enjoying herself. "You don't think you can win! You're the kinda girl who thinks with her brain, not her fear!" She laughed again, a smaller, drier chuckle. "That's always been your problem, Sakura! You're too smart for your own good. You're overthinking this! You already got to the conclusion, and now you're searching for something else!"

She leaned forward. "Look at me." Sakura's head had tilted away, towards the exit of the kitchen as she pondered escape. "You're doing the right thing. You know yourself. If you don't think you can win, you shouldn't fight."

"That's not what being a ninja is," Sakura said, wondering where the words were coming from. They didn't sound like her. They sounded like…

Haku.

"Sometimes, a ninja has to struggle, or take a fight they can't win."

"Yep," Mebuki said triumphantly. "That's true. Sometimes, you'll have no choice. But right now, you're not supposed to be a ninja. You're supposed to be a genin that'll be an example to the other villages." She grew a little more somber. "And in this case... a genin who walks away is a better example."

Sakura looked down, rolling the words around in her head as she finished off her water.

"Sensei told me to come back tomorrow," she eventually said, a little shocked at how tired she sounded. It wasn't even three in the afternoon, was it? "He told me to think about what I really want."

"You should do that." Her mother leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead, and Sakura almost flinched back. "Get some rest, okay? You've been running ragged this whole month. Just take an afternoon to yourself, okay?"

She nodded, and her mother stood up. "I said I'd meet up with some friends, okay? I'm going to head out, if that's alright."

"Who?" Sakura asked, feeling rooted to the table, and her mother winked.

"No one you care about," she said with a wry grin. "But if you're worried, don't be. I'm not going to spread the news around. That's not gonna be my place."

"Okay." Sakura slumped forward, resting against the cold wood of the table. "Have fun."

"I'll be back tonight," Mebuki grinned. "Your father and I will make you something nice. How's that sound?"

Sakura nodded, and her mother left. She heard the door distantly close, and stayed at the table with no idea of what to do next.

If she wanted to give up, why did doing it feel so terrible?

Sakura stood up, taking her glass to the sink and tossing her apple core in a trashcan in the corner of the room. What did she even want to do with an evening to herself? The last couple weeks had been nothing but training, eating, and sleeping. What had she even done for fun, before _this_?

She watched as the apple landed in the can with a _thunk_ , and frowned. She hadn't read a book in almost a month. That was really unlike her. Sakura hated to say it out loud because it sounded dorky and antisocial, but reading had been her favorite hobby for as long as she could remember. It was easy and fun. Just like when she had trained with water, it was simple for her to fall into a fugue while turning page after page, feeling the unique texture of the paper and enjoying the creak of the spine.

"I'll go to the library," she said out loud, just to hear her own voice. She tried to make it more confident. If she didn't make a plan, she'd just sit in the kitchen for the rest of the day, and then just hate herself more. "I'll go to the library."

As far as half-baked and spur of the moment plans went, it was pretty good, so Sakura went with it.

###

Konoha had several libraries, but the central one near the Hokage's tower had always been Sakura's favorite for two reasons. The first was its atmosphere. The eastern library was nicknamed "the pinecone," because of its spiralling structure dotted with windows, and most of the others had equally bizarre construction. By contrast, the central library was like most of Konoha's residential buildings on the surface, tall and blocky, but the majority of its library was beneath the ground in a sort of den that sprawled out in several subterranean extensions.

Down there, beneath the building and away from the bustle of Konoha, things were usually quiet and peaceful. The thick walls absorbed most sound, and the rooms were large enough that even someone talking loudly wouldn't do much to disturb the peace. It was an ideal studying environment.

The second reason was its size. The central library was by far the largest, and Sakura had never failed to find a book on any sort of subject there. History, geography, advanced mathematics, chakra theory, even more niche interests like art and engineering could be found in abundance at the library. If Sakura was ever curious about something, she could always be sure to find it there.

Until today. Because today, on a whim, she had begun searching for the history of a particular village soon after arriving, and had met with little success.

Sakura shut another index, a motion that was dangerously close to a slam, and huffed. She didn't understand. Amegakure had been a Hidden Village for at least thirty years. There was no way there wasn't any material on it. She returned the book, a large omnibus titled _Villages, Towns, and Cities of the Northern Nations_ which had been meticulously organized, overly dry, and ultimately useless, to one of the towering shelves and stalked down the aisle, heading towards a help desk.

Sakura didn't like asking for help in a library of all places, but she was left with no choice. She'd been here almost twenty minutes and hadn't been able to find a single thing.

"Oh? Is that you, Sakura?" She recognized the man at the desk when she rounded the final stack; it was an older gentleman who'd been at the library for as long as she could remember… but she couldn't remember his name. Sakura felt a flare of self-consciousness. "Haven't seen you in a while. How're you doing?"

"Good!" she lied with a smile. "I'm having trouble finding books about a certain village. Can I get some help?"

"Sure!" The older man smiled, his mustache rising with the motion, and reached down to pull out a file from beneath the desk. He pulled it open, eyes already dropping. "Which village is it?"

"The Hidden Rain," Sakura said, and the man clucked his tongue.

"Well, no wonder," he said, snapping the file shut. You're never gonna have much luck there, young lady."

"What?" Sakura asked, cocking her head as she peered over the desk. "What do you mean? Someone must surely have written about that village…"

"Of course," the man said with a grin. "But it doesn't matter how much is written about it: if the court forbids any public material about it, you're not going to find it in the stacks."

"The courts?" Sakura was only getting more confused.

"The Daimyo's Court, of course. Material on Amegakure isn't fit for public consumption, according to them." The man tapped his file. "So it's banned from being filed in the public areas."

"Well that's stupid," Sakura said.

' _You'd never dream of replacing the Daimyo, I imagine.'_

She paused at the flitting memory, and then continued. "If it's not in the public area…"

"Oh, I can go grab it for you," the man said. "It's available to shinobi, unless the Hokage says otherwise." He laughed. "And I doubt the Fourth has time to go around banning books like the Daimyo."

"Yeah…" Sakura smiled, feeling a little uneasy. "Could you get a couple for me? I'm just trying to learn more about its history, I guess. I ran into a team from there during the Exam, and they were really odd."

"Most foreigners are," the man said with a nod. "Especially shinobi. Other villages have all sorts of freaky customs." He leaned forward. "And that's just the stuff that's gotten out. Be glad you were born in the Leaf, young lady."

Sakura nodded and gave another smile, but it felt insincere. She wasn't feeling gratitude.

She was thinking about what Tenten had told her, about Neji being a servant to the rest of the Hyuuga because his father had been born a couple minutes after Hinata's.

The man left, disappearing into one of the back rooms that connected to one another throughout the whole library like a spider's web, and Sakura waited patiently for about three minutes. When he returned, he had an armful of books.

"Don't go reading them all in one place," he said, and Sakura forced a laugh as he set them down on the counter. She gathered them up with a word of thanks and retreated to a long desk in the corner.

Sakura would have had trouble articulating what she was doing if someone asked her, but mostly she just wanted to see if everything Haku had told her was true. In the end, it wasn't very surprising to her that it was.

The Land of Rain had been a small country since its founding. Even before the age of shinobi and their villages it had been trapped between larger competitors that exploited it for its resources. It had once had many precious metal deposits like the Land of Iron, but those had all been mined out decades ago. It had once had thick forests like the Land of Fire, but colonizers and corporations from Earth, Iron, Fire, and Wind had chopped them down long ago, and now little lumber remained. The same story repeated a dozen times. Sakura came to realize, two books in, that what Haku had told her had been sanitized and limited, either so he wouldn't sound too harsh or out of ignorance since he was not a native. In almost every respect, Rain had been stripped of everything of worth and left as a buffer territory between the larger nations: an excuse for them not to share borders and the complications that would arise from that.

Rain only had a couple meaningful exports in recent history, after the rise of the Five Villages, and to Sakura's complete lack of surprise the main one was skilled shinobi. Perhaps it was because of the constant conflict that wracked the nation, or maybe it was because most people seemed to underestimate shinobi from the minor villages and so watched any exceptional ones with extra attention, but regardless of the reason Rain had a history of singularly powerful shinobi who shaped the politics of the entire nation. There had been Hanzo, like Haku said, and before him there had been Kawakami the Ember, and before him Fukoku Konran, who had given up her family name to protect her clan from retribution.

And now, there was the Akatsuki Triumvirate. They were only in one book, _The Red Sun Over Rain_ , which was more modern and, Sakura thought, a little silly. It painted the Akatsuki as dangerous anarchists who wanted to destroy the world because they hated the current system. Sakura already knew that was inherently ridiculous. If you were leading a village, you couldn't be an anarchist; that was self-evident. Haku and his team had been sent to the Chunin Exam to be promoted traditionally: that meant that Rain wanted to be a part of the system, not destroy it. The author claimed that Rain and the Akatsuki were focusing on stealing powerful shinobi from the other villages with mind control and more sinister methods, and it wasn't long before Sakura found herself rolling her eyes.

Eventually, she closed the book in disgust. She had wanted to find out more about the Akatsuki, but here at least there wasn't anything but propaganda. The only new thing she'd learned was that all three of the Akatsuki's leaders, Jiraiya of the Sannin's students, were masters of ninjutsu, which wasn't especially shocking, and that one of them, Nagato, was rumored to possess a mysterious dojutsu. There were no details. Was it like the Sharingan, she wondered, or the Byakugan? _Red Sun_ wasn't interested in that question, apparently. It was more concerned with selling the Land of Rain as an existential threat to the Five Villages, with a couple less subtle passages calling for it to be crushed as soon as possible.

The whole book left a sour taste in Sakura's mouth, and she pushed it away, making a mental note to never read anything else by the author. She didn't want to get a headache.

However, the talk of Amegakure being crushed reminded her of something else. She wheeled her chair away from the desk and slid up out of it, wandering back into the stacks.

It wasn't nearly as difficult to find material on Uzushiogakure. That material was available to the public.

' _What idiot in the court decided that Ame shouldn't be, anyway?'_

Sakura returned to her table with another handful of books and sat down with a groan, spreading them across the wood. Someone stepped into the den, an older woman, glanced at her, and then turned and left; she'd taken up the whole table. Sakura sighed. She didn't want to be seen as rude.

Material on The Village Hidden in the Whirlpools was much more balanced than it had been for Rain. Most of the sources agreed on the main details; it had been a small village ruled by the Uzumaki clan, just as Haku had said, and it had been annihilated by its neighboring nations, Lightning and Water, with the effort led by the Hidden Villages of Mist and Cloud.

The motivation behind the destruction was a little more complicated. One book alleged it was due to an ancient grudge; the Uzumaki clan had practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism in the distant past, and its neighbors were taking revenge for their predation. Sakura thought that sounded especially silly, and was most likely propaganda. Two other books agreed on the cause, that in the age of the Hidden Villages the Tailed Beasts were important weapons, and the Uzumaki had possessed weapons or techniques that were a threat to them. Because of that, Mist and Cloud had feared their own Beasts being destroyed or captured, and had formed the alliance that had doomed Uzoshiogakure.

Sakura didn't know much about the Tailed Beasts, other than that they existed. The notion they were important weapons for the Villages pricked her interest, and so they were the next subject of her research.

Four hours later, Sakura looked up from her ever-growing stack of books and panicked when she realized it was almost eight o'clock. She rushed home without bothering to return all her books for the first time in her life, ideas and foriegn words buzzing in her head. When she threw open her door, her parents were on the other side.

"Sakura?" Her father came down the hall, out of the kitchen. "Hey! We were just going to start looking for you!" He grinned. "What happened? Get caught in a book?"

Sakura didn't want to admit that that was exactly what had happened, so she just shrugged, and her father laughed. "Well, if that's how it is," he said, gesturing. "C'mon. Your mom and I made dinner. We're gonna celebrate, okay?"

It was a huge dinner, and Sakura felt normal for the first time in a month, speaking with her parents and telling them about her training. They talked about their missions, gossip in the village, news from abroad, and Sakura fell into a comfortable haze of familiarity. She went to bed with a full belly, and fell asleep warm and feeling safe.

Why, she thought as she slipped away, did I give this up for so long? Just to win a fight? Wasn't that stupid?

But when she fell asleep, she didn't dream about her parents, or the library. She dreamed about sand, and she woke up in a cold sweat before the sun slipped over the mountains.

###

Her sensei came to fetch her in the morning, after her parents had already left. Sakura walked with him through the morning streets, and they watched Konoha wake up around them. Shops came to life, people poured into the streets. Sakura and Obito walked through it all like a waking dream, the air cold and the sky a dismal blue-grey.

"I've gotta apologize, Sakura," her sensei eventually said, after they'd been walking for a couple minutes, and Sakura dropped her head.

"I'm the one who needs to apologize, sensei," she said. "To you and Asuma-sensei too. I shouldn't have… I didn't handle yesterday well. I shouldn't have said those things."

"Probably not," Obito said with a little laugh. "But who could blame you? We got so caught up in the how we never explained to you why." Sakura glanced at him with a questioning look, and Obito gave her a sad smile. "We never explained to you the purpose of the exercises."

"You did though," Sakura said. "They were to improve my control, and my nature transformation."

"Sure, but for _what_?" Obito asked, and Sakura frowned. "Exactly. You never asked, and we never bothered. Even after Asuma took your sword, you didn't ask any questions, so we kept training you. You trusted us, right?"

Sakura nodded. "Well," her sensei continued. "Just cause you trusted us, doesn't mean you shouldn't ask questions. Take that as a lesson from this, maybe. We didn't realize how frustrated you were getting." He raised one of his hands. "Our fault, not yours. But something to keep in mind, okay?"

"Well… okay," Sakura said. "But then, what are we doing today, sensei?" She frowned. "I can't just keep training…"

"True," Obito said. "We both figured, Asuma and me, you were getting there anyway. Yesterday just confirmed it." He rubbed the back of his head. "So today, I figure we'll show you what that training was for. After that, you can decide if you still wanna forfeit."

They walked in silence the rest of the way as Sakura tried to suppress her shame. She still wanted to give up: she doubted anything that happened today would change that. But her sensei seemed excited even if he was a little dour, and she didn't want to shoot him down. That would be terrible.

When they arrived at the same training field she'd practically been calling home for the last several weeks, Sakura was surprised to find that it wasn't just a set of buckets and Asuma like usual. Asuma was there, and so were the buckets, but there were others. Naruto and Sasuke were there, goofing around with one another as they tried to slap the other's shoulder. They waved when they saw her, and Sasuke took the advantage to land an extremely loud _SLAP_ on Naruto, drawing a yelp as the other boy skittered away.

Sakura laughed, hiding her smile with a closed fist. Her teammates weren't the only ones there. Asuma's team was as well: Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino, and besides them Hinata was sitting in the grass, watching Naruto and Sasuke spar with an unusual amount of focus.

Last of all, Rin Nohara was there. Sakura had only met her for real once before, when the woman had examined her in the hospital. The jonin grinned at her, and Sakura felt her stomach flip. Why were there so many people?

She wished Tenten was here, instead of the rest.

"Sensei?" she asked, and Obito frowned.

"I don't know about the others," he said. "When I left, Naruto and Sasuke were the only ones here."

"They came to watch," Asuma called as Sakura and Obito came closer. The whole group began coming together, all nine ninja forming a rough semicircle. "Wasn't my idea." Obito stepped away, quietly conversing with Rin. The older woman giggled, and he frowned.

Sakura felt her heart sink. She looked at each of her classmates in turn, her gaze lingering on Hinata's missing finger. Both she and Shikamaru were out of their casts: apparently their broken bones had fully healed. "Ino?" she asked, coming to the last of them.

"You're the one going up against that freak," Ino said with a smile that belied her word's venom. "We wanted to see how you've been doing."

She wanted to shrink down and vanish into the earth. Sakura looked down, unable to handle the admission. She hadn't done a thing. She wasn't any closer to beating Gaara today than she had been when he'd almost killed Ino's team. Her sensei stepped up beside her, and Sakura wished he'd just tell everyone to go home.

Nothing to see here.

"Sakura's been training her nature transformation for the last three weeks," was what he said instead. "Today, we're going to see that pay off. There's no guarantee it's going to be especially exciting. If that's what you're looking for, you should head out right now."

No one left. "She'll kick ass," Naruto said, and the other kids nodded. Sakura blushed, and he smiled at her. "No way she won't."

"Hmph." Asuma snorted, stepping forward and putting out his cigarette. "We'll see." He held his hand out. "Sakura, your sword."

Sakura pulled her sword from its sheath and carefully turned it around, presenting it to Asuma handle first. The Sarutobi gingerly plucked the blade from her hands, turning it over in his.

"You never asked me what I did with this," he said, and Sakura shook her head, feeling more foolish by the second. "Why the balance was off."

"I thought you'd tell me," she said quietly, and the man snorted.

"Well, I guess you were right. I'll tell you right now." A distortion in the air rippled up the blade, and Sakura watched it with fascination. It was like a heat shimmer, but a thousand times more turbulent, and it came to a stop about a foot above the end of the sword. Asuma dipped the blade down, and ran the almost invisible distortion through the grass at his feet.

Wherever the convulsing air touched, the grass and earth was snipped apart, as if the air was an unbelievably sharp blade. Asuma dragged a thin, deep cut in the earth without even touching it with the sword, and then lifted the blade back up, the distortion vanishing.

"I had my clan reforge your sword," he said as Sakura gaped. Shikamaru made a soft sound of understanding. "The Sarutobi have a good stock of chakra reactive metal, and your sensei and I thought you were a good candidate for it."

"Chakra reactive metal?" Sakura asked, and Asuma handed her sword back to her. She looked down at it, the strange weight suddenly taking on an entirely new meaning. "Like the paper?"

"Just so," Asuma said with a nod. "It's a material that soaks up chakra like a sponge, and makes it easier to direct. I can transfer my chakra through it, transform it into Wind." He plucked a curved knife from his vest, and the distortion reappeared. "My knives are constructed of the same metal."

"I see," Sakura said, not sure if she did. "Then, what…?"

"Sakura!" Naruto interrupted. "This is so cool!" He looked at all three of the adults. "Then she can do the same thing? Put her chakra through the sword, but with water instead of wind?"

"Exactly," Obito affirmed, and his teammate gave him a sly look.

"Pretty clever, Obito," Rin teased, and Sakura's sensei rubbed the back of his head with a shy grin. Sakura watched the whole thing, feeling a tickle of amusement in her chest.

"Well, it's only clever if it works," Obito said. He gestured and Sakura followed him back to one of the buckets. "So, Sakura, this will be the same principle," he said, and Sakura looked at him with a little fear. She was keenly aware of all the eyes at her back. "Before, you were channeling your chakra directly through your hands into the water. The only difference here is that you'll be using the sword as a medium."

"What's this for, sensei?" Sakura asked quietly, and Obito straightened up. "What am I trying to do?"

"An elemental blade," Obito said bluntly. "Like what Asuma did with his Wind. Water isn't the best piercing element; that's Lightning. But for cutting, it's right behind Wind, and it can be a lot more flexible." He knelt down, bringing his face level with hers. "You ever seen a water-jet cutter?" Was that a jutsu? Sakura shook her head, and her sensei shrugged. "Yeah, I doubt you would have. It's a special kind of tool for cutting material that's sensitive to heat." He frowned. "I think. I've never used one. The point is, you get water going fast enough, mix in some other stuff, and it can even cut through steel. You understand?"

Sakura didn't, but she nodded anyway, desperate to suppress the trembling that would start in her feet and work its way up through her body. She didn't want to humiliate herself in front of her teammates, Obito's, and the others. She was more scared than ever.

"Try running your chakra through the sword first," Obito suggested. She was sure he could tell exactly what she was feeling. Sakura focused, projecting her chakra out through her palm and into the sword, and was surprised at how easy it was. The sword sucked up her chakra almost eagerly, but without wasting any of it. It just filled up the blade; after a moment, it felt like it was an extension of Sakura's body, more so than any sword had before.

The weird weight was gone. Sakura realized it had been a sort of emptiness, and absence where her chakra should have been. Her arm shook, once, and she closed her eyes, focusing on the feeling.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Obito said, and Sakura opened her eyes to see him smiling. She smiled back. "My White Fang is the same way," he said, gesturing at the blade on his back. It made Sakura feel better to have something shared with her sensei. "Now, try dipping it in the water."

Sakura did, the tip of the blade vanishing below the surface. She could feel the water coursing around the blade like it was her own hand. Almost unable to believe how easy it was, she drew the liquid up around the sword. When she pulled it back, the water came with it like a liquid sheathe.

"What?" she asked, looking at it with a confused expression. She heard someone behind her cheer, probably Naruto.

"That's not supposed to be easy," Obito said, looking a little smug. "But it feels like it, right?"

Sakura moved the sword back and forth, watching the water dance over it. The liquid clung to the blade like a magnet; it was barely an effort for her. She nodded, astonished at the feeling, and her sensei grinned. "That's 'cause of your training. Like I told you at the beginning, Sakura…"

"I'm a natural," Sakura said faintly, and Obito nodded.

"Right now, it's just a bunch of water around the blade," he said, and Sakura focused, analyzing the sword and her chakra. She forgot about the people behind her. It was just her, her sensei, and the sword. "That's not going to help much with cutting power, though it might freak people out if they don't understand how water works. Try moving it a little?"

Sakura did, trying to get the water to spin around the steel like a rotary blade, and it responded to her chakra much quicker than she thought it would. She had assumed the movement would be sluggish, but the water began spinning so fast that some of it flew off, out of her control and splattered into the grass.

She frowned, and retrieved more from the bucket. Keep it close to the sword, to keep control. Use the centrifugal motion to take some of the work away from your chakra. After a couple minutes, the water around the sword was rotating around it in a constant spiral.

Like the Rasengan, she realized with a start. Like a vertical Rasengan centered around the sword. She glanced back at her teammates, and watched Naruto and Sasuke come to the same realization. Naruto grinned and gave her a thumbs up, and she smiled back shakily. The others were watching too: Ino's eyes were wide, and Hinata's Byakugan had activated.

"Good," Obito eventually said. "I think you've got the hang of it, mostly." He narrowed his eyes. "But you see the problem when it comes to Gaara, right?"

"Even if I could cut through his sand," Sakura said, backing down from the high of controlling her chakra so effortlessly and confronting reality, "it's still just a sword. I'd have to get close to him. He'd have the advantage there."

"Exactly," Obito said. "So, that's the last part of this jutsu." He lifted three fingers, and ticked them off one by one. "You control the water. Easy, for you." One finger dropped. "You rotate the water, to increase its cutting power." The second finger dropped. "The last step will be extending it, so you can attack Gaara safely."

"It's like the Rasengan," Sakura muttered, barely able to believe it. "It's just as much shape manipulation as it is nature."

"Yup," Obito nodded. "I took a little inspiration, can't lie."

"And you thought I could do it?" Sakura asked, barely able to believe it.

"Still do," Obito said, solid as a rock. Sakura was rooted to the spot, captivated by his confidence. "So, show me. Let the water extend off the sword, but don't lose control of it. Okay?"

Sakura tried, not really sure what to do. She let the water drip down off the sword like a long wet snake, careful not to lose the rotational energy. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to get it back once the water was stretched out. The water became a rope, and then a cord, stretching farther as it coiled around her feet. Five, ten, fifteen feet. Sakura was finally forced to stop, feeling her chakra's grip on the liquid grow thin. She drew some of the water back up into the sword, feeling like she was pulling on an unbelievably heavy winch, and left herself thirteen feet of liquid coiled around her.

"Are you kidding… okay." Obito rubbed the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.

"What?" Sakura asked, and her sensei laughed.

"Sakura, do you even know what you're _doing_?" he said, and Sakura frowned, shaking her head. "You just made a whip out of the water. It's still spinning!" He gestured at the water. "If I'd known you could do _this_ , we woulda started last week!"

"This is… good?" Sakura asked, looking down at the coil of solid water she'd created, and Obito snorted.

"Hey!" he called over her shoulder, and Sakura flinched. "She wants to know if this is good!"

" _What_?" Rin called back. "Is she insane? That's amazing!"

Sakura wasn't sure if she should take offense at being called insane or blush at the compliment, so she decided on both. She lifted the sword, feeling the water follow and locking in place with her chakra, imagining it as an iron spine that ran throughout the whole whip, as Obito had called it. Solid, unbreakable, but flexible. Her will and soul extended through her sword, through the water, making it just another further extension of her arm.

"Okay, you're getting it," Obito said. "Now let's test it out, alright?" He walked back towards the group, and Sakura followed, the water trailing behind her and leaving a trail in the grass.

"Sakura," Hinata muttered as she walked past, and Sakura glanced at her, trying not to show her anxiety. Could you even hide that from the Byakugan? "Keep your chakra even across your upper body. You have too much on your right side. It's going to throw your balance off."

Sakura nodded, trying to follow the advice. She kneaded more chakra in her core and spread it out across her torso, and to her surprise the water blade grew even lighter.

What amazing eyes. She smiled at Hinata, and the girl smiled back. In front of her, Obito came to a stop.

"Alright," he said, turning to face her and jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "See that tree?"

It couldn't be missed. It was a stout, wide oak, barely twenty feet tall and with a trunk wider than even Obito could wrap his arms around. The trunk was covered in scores of scars from previous practice sessions by other shinobi.

"We want you to whack it," Obito said, and Sakura watched the tree with a bit of suspicion. She raised her sword, watching the water course of it.

"Just whack it?" she asked, and her sensei nodded.

"Use it like a whip," he suggested.

"Keep the water rotating," Asuma said, walking up behind her as Obito got out of her way. "That's a good technique. Keep that up, extend the blade, and strike with everything you've got."

Sakura glanced back at him, and then at the tree. She took a deep breath and let it out, trying to center herself, and her feet slid into a basic kata stance.

She swung the blade at the tree, not sure what she was doing, and the water blade splattered against the side, cracking some of the bark but otherwise falling limp. Sakura frowned.

" _Swing_ ," Asuma said. "It's not just a normal sword anymore. You have to feel the water." He put his hand down, touching his ring finger to the top of the water coursing over the sword, and when he pulled it away there was a tiny cut on the pad of his finger. Sakura blinked at the sudden blood. " _This_ is your sword now. Understand?"

"Did you just cut yourself?" Ino asked in disbelief, and her sensei shrugged. Shikamaru laughed.

"C'mon," she heard Sasuke mutter. He sounded like he was anticipating something. Was he using his Sharingan? Could he see something she couldn't? "Do it."

"Sakura, just swing!" Naruto shouted from behind her. Sakura closed her eyes, taking another breath. She poured more and more of her chakra into the sword, still trying to keep her body balanced. "Fuck that tree up!"

Sakura swung with both hands.

She stepped forward into the strike, ankle to hip to arm to hand, throwing the entire weight of her body into the blow, and screamed as she swung, blowing all of her anxiety, fear, and anger out in a single breath. It wasn't a very traditional kiai, but it was all she could do.

The water blade slashed out, so fast that Sakura herself could barely follow it, and sliced through the tree. It went at a slight diagonal angle, carving clean through the trunk, and exited about a foot lower on the other side in an explosion of bark and sap.

Sakura blinked, unable to comprehend what she'd just done. The water blade fell apart and splattered across the field; she stumbled, off balance, and fell on her butt, breathing heavily and watching with wide eyes. The tree groaned, sliding sideways on its bifurcated trunk, and slowly toppled, branches cracking and snapping as it fell with a slow but inevitable gravity and slammed into the field, shaking the ground.

The field was silent for a full five seconds as the tree settled, and Sakura looked back at her teammates. They were both just as surprised as her, speechlessly staring at the toppled oak. Naruto's eyes slid down to meet hers.

"Holy _shit_ , Sakura," he said, and broke the silent spell.

Everyone rushed forward, surrounding and congratulating her. Naruto pulled her to her feet, babbling the whole time. Sakura could barely hear them. She was staring at the fallen tree, her hands shaking.

' _I did that?'_

She couldn't wrap her head around it. She'd cut down a whole tree? In one swing? That wasn't possible, was it?

Sakura's hands closed into fists, something hot pricking at her eyes. She had lost her grip on her sword, and left it on the ground.

' _I did that.'_

"I told you!" Asuma hooted, slapping Obito on the back. "I told you!"

"Bullshit!" her sensei shouted back with a wide grin. "You didn't know _that_ would happen!"

"Well, no!" Asuma admitted. "But I figured it would be _something_!"

"Boys," Rin muttered, pushing her way through the press and looking Sakura over with a critical eye. She took one of her hands in hers, and Sakura felt foriegn chakra running through her body. "You alright? You fell over."

"I'm fine," Sakura said, and it felt like an unvarnished truth. Her whole body was buzzing, as if it had been asleep until now. She didn't feel tired at all; it was like there was a live wire running under her arm, hot and electric. "I was just surprised. I didn't think…"

"No kidding," Rin said dryly. "Your pulse is crazy, but you're good besides that. Calm down a little, okay?" She pulled back, dropping Sakura's hand, and smiled. "Be proud. That's a hell of a jutsu."

Sakura sniffled and nodded, and Rin's smile shrunk. "What's wrong?"

"Sakura?" Naruto asked, his hand coming down on her shoulder. "You okay?"

"I'm okay," she said, her voice muffled. She laughed and dropped her head, the tears coming more heavily. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I just…!"

"Hey," Sasuke said, coming in from the other side. "It's okay. What're you-?"

"I'm happy, you idiots!" Sakura cried, and Naruto laughed. "I thought I was gonna die! And now-!" She gestured vaguely at the tree, the sound coming from her indistinguishable between sobbing and laughing. " _That?_ I don't even know what to do with _that_!"

"Kick that freak's ass, is what!" Naruto declared, and Sakura descended into another round of laughter and tears. "Stop crying! You're freaking me out!"

"It's okay, Naruto," Obito said. "She was scared. It's natural." Behind him, Ino sniffed as well.

"Dammit Sakura," she muttered. "You're gonna make me get started too. We were really worried about you, y'know?"

Sakura nodded, still too overwhelmed to speak.

"It's a good start," Shikamaru said. He looked a little excited, his eyes narrow as he looked back and forth between the tree and Sakura. It was the first time Sakura had seen anything but boredom or amusement on his face.

"You've got the power," Choji said, trying to sound authoritative. "But you're gonna need a little more to get past that sand. You should keep training."

"She will," Hinata said quietly. "She'll get there." She stood up, and Sakura barely recognized the fierce expression on her face. "She… Sakura, you'll show Sand they made a mistake."

Sakura nodded, blowing out a rough breath and wiping away some of her tears. "Sorry," she muttered. "Sorry, you guys."

"Nothing to be sorry for," Naruto grinned, and Sakura smiled back at him.

"I was going to give up," she said after a moment, and everyone in the field stiffened. "I didn't think I could do anything against him." She frowned, her eyes narrowing as she looked back at the tree. She bent down to pick up her sword.

"And now?" Obito asked. "Did you think about what you want?"

Sakura straightened up, turning the sword over in her hand.

"I don't know if I can win, but..." she said, mostly to herself. Her sensei cocked an eyebrow and leaned in, and Sakura looked up at her, feeling her lips slide back and bare her teeth.

' _I'm sick of being scared.'_

"I'm definitely going to fight."


	22. The Finals Begin

Rivals

The day of the final exam arrived before Sakura knew it. She barely remembered waking up that morning; it was as though she were transported to the arena without control of her body. She met her teammates and her sensei there.

"Sakura." Obito waved his hands in front of her face. Naruto and Sasuke had already gone on ahead. "You okay?" He was fully kitted out, wearing his metal forearm guards and everything.

"No," she said frankly, and he laughed.

"Eat a big breakfast?"

"No."

"Looking forward to the fights?"

"No."

"Can you say anything else?"

"No."

Her sensei laughed again, and squeezed her shoulder. "That's fine. You're all going to meet up in the middle of the arena, alright?" They were standing in one of the halls that spiralled throughout the building, the light of the morning sun pouring in through a nearby exit. That door led to the arena proper. "The rules are going to get laid out there. You're the last fight of the day, so you'll have plenty of time to catch your breath, okay?"

"Okay." Sakura took a deep breath. She was going to fight. She'd already made up her mind. Now, it was just a waiting game. "Okay."

Obito smiled. "Trust yourself."

Sakura nodded, and walked out the door into the sun.

The arena was huge, more than a hundred meters from end to end, and was essentially a small ring of nature enclosed by concrete walls that towered over thirty meters high around it. There was a small creek running through one corner of it, and a copse of scraggly trees in the other: the rest was mostly flat, torn up grass. A perfect naturalistic circle. Above the concrete walls were the stands.

They were already completely filled to the brim with people of every size, color, and nationality. Sakura was completely overwhelmed by the size of the audience and the sound of its murmuring. There were thousands of them, and just their background noise was like a rushing river all around her. She scanned the countless faces in the crowd for familiar ones, and couldn't find any at a first pass. Her other classmates were up there, and her parents, but she couldn't find them in the sea of people. She kept walking, coming to the center of the arena.

The other competitors were already there, all except Kabuto. Four of them turned to catch her eye as she walked up: Naruto, Sasuke, Tenten, and Haku. They all smiled at her.

How weird was it, Sakura thought, that she was friends with four of the twelve finalists?

Gaara was there too. He didn't look at her. Sakura took her place on the other end of the line from him.

"Good of you to join us." The proctor for the match was Shikaku Nara, the same scarred man that had been there when the matchups were announced. "Eleven out of twelve is good enough for me, so we're gonna go over the rules now."

He pulled out a scrap of paper from his vest, and the murmuring in the arena intensified. "Like I told you all a month ago," he said, "this will not be a bracket tournament. Each of you will have a single match, and that match will determine your promotion." His eyes wandered over each of them, lingering on no-one. "Give your all."

He pointed at Naruto and Sasuke. "You two are first: your match is in ten minutes. Take that time to prepare." Then, to the rest of them. "You seven will be in the first observation area." His finger swept over the ninja from the Hidden Sand. "And you three, the second."

They were splitting them up. Because Gaara had come after Naruto before the tournament? Almost certainly. The older girl, Temari, bowed her head, but her teammates just stared ahead without a word.

"Go," Shikaku said, and they broke up into three groups. It was already happening? Sakura still didn't feel even close to ready. As her teammates turned to go, she walked after them.

"Sakura?" Sasuke turned towards her. "We're-"

"I know," she interrupted. "I just wanted to wish you guys luck." She managed a single dry chuckle. "Both of you, you know." She reached out, a little hesitant at first, and then pulled them both into a hug. Naruto made a high pitched noise, but Sasuke just grunted. When she pushed them back, they were both slightly blushing.

"Have fun, okay?" she said, and they grinned.

"Oh, we're gonna," Naruto said, and Sasuke nodded with a bit of a smirk. "Thanks, Sakura!"

Sakura jogged back to the group, and Tenten elbowed her. "You dork," she said as they entered the shadow of the arena. "Who do you think's gonna win?"

"I've got no idea," Sakura admitted. "They're both really strong, and they've known each other for so long. It could be either of them."

"It'll be Sasuke," Neji said, and Sakura looked over at him in surprise. She hadn't expected him to care. "He's the more determined."

"You are wrong, Neji!" Lee declared, and the Hyuuga let out an amused grunt. "It will be Naruto: he is the more youthful!"

"Louder, you mean," Tenten said with a smile.

"Sakura knows them the best." Haku spoke up, his voice soft, and the Leaf ninja glanced at him. "And she's unsure of the winner." The ninja from Rain smiled at a private joke. "It could be a tie."

"Haku, right?" Tenten asked. They started to climb the stairs to the observation room. It was a smaller room set below the main stands, closer to the arena and separated from the crowds. "You're my opponent."

"And I yours," Haku said, completely neutral.

"Any tips on how to beat you?" Tenten asked, and Sakura blinked at her boldness. Haku just laughed.

"Perhaps later," he said in good humor. They reached the room; it wasn't very large, maybe only thirty feet wide, with a couple of benches set near the side closest to the arena. There wasn't a window there, only a short railing that ran the length of the room. "For now, I'll just wish you good luck, Tenten of the Leaf."

"Ha!" Tenten smirked. "Fair enough."

"You're a cocky one," Suigetsu said with a bit of a sneer, and both of Tenten's teammates gave him unimpressed looks. "No one's ever beaten Haku. You won't be the first."

"There's always a first," Tenten said with a teasing tone, and the boy snorted.

Sakura looked back and forth between the two older ninja. She didn't want them to fight, not at all. Tenten fought with blades, and Haku with needles and most likely water jutsu. No matter how the match went, there would definitely be blood spilled.

"Sorry I'm late!" Kabuto hammered up the stairs behind them, and popped the tense attitude without effort. "Did I miss anything?"

"Nothing important," Haku said, glancing at Suigetsu. The boy huffed and calmed down, crossing his arms and sitting down on one of the benches. "The matches are going to start in a couple minutes."

"Phew!" the boy mimed wiping away some invisible sweat and sat down next to Suigetsu. "Ah, hello Sakura!" He inclined his head towards Tenten's team. "And you as well, ninja of the Leaf."

"Cutting it a little close, weren't you?" Tenten asked, and the boy rubbed the back of his sheepishly. "What were you up to?"

"I was grabbing something," Kabuto said, and as ever Sakura had no idea if he was telling the truth or not. The older boy never seemed outright suspicious, he just had a vague way of talking that made the back of Sakura's neck occasionally prickle. "It's not important, I promise." A slight smile slipped over his face. "I won't be fighting any of you anyway, so there's no need to worry."

"Ah!" Lee said, pointing upward. Sakura followed the line drawn by his finger to the stadium's highest point. It was the most important seat in the house. The Hokage was there, and he was what had drawn Lee's attention; he was standing up, preparing to speak. His wife was present as well, along with the Kazekage and one other, all seated in tall stone thrones.

There were a half dozen other shinobi that Sakura didn't recognize. She couldn't make out much about them from the distance, but the way they were positioned made her assume they were the Kage's bodyguards, two standing behind each great chair. That was what drew Sakura's attention to the third figure as the Hokage began speaking.

It was a tall woman with blue hair, nearly hidden under the distinctive hat of a Kage. She remained seated with the other Kage and Kushina, demure and graceful looking even in repose, as Minato Namikaze spoke.

"Welcome!" he declared, his booming voice carrying over the massive stadium with ease. "To the Hidden Leaf's Chunin Selection Exam!" He looked around the stadium, somehow making it look as though he was making eye contact with everyone. The Hokage just had that kind of impossible presence. "Today, we will be celebrating the skill of our dozen finalists with six unique matches! Please honor their achievements, and stay to watch to the end!"

It was overly formal and strange sounding, and Sakura realized with a new thrill of both horror and excitement that she would be the last match. She would be the climax that the Hokage had just implicitly promised.

She shivered.

The Hokage sat back down and shared a private joke with his wife, who laughed, inaudible from a distance. Sakura wondered what they were thinking as they watched their son start the final exam.

Naruto and Sasuke both appeared from either end of the arena, approaching the center as a chorus of cheers and clapping rose up around the stadium. Naruto waved and grinned, but Sasuke didn't make a move: he was totally focused on his teammate. His opponent, Sakura thought. For just a couple minutes, the world was going to flip upside down.

Shikaku was still waiting for them in the center, and he gave each of them a nod as they arrived, coming to a stop just ten feet apart.

"All matches will operate under the same rules," he said, projecting his voice loud enough that Sakura was sure even the highest seats would be able to hear him. "The battle will only end if one of you concedes defeat, is rendered unconscious, or killed." His eyes slipped back and forth between them. "If I believe the match has been decided, I will step in myself. Understand?"

Both of Sakura's teammates nodded, faces set in serious expressions, and she wondered when they had all started looking older. Sasuke hadn't always been that severe, surely. And Naruto's hair hadn't been that wild before. It had only been a couple months, but neither of them looked like kids anymore. They looked like shinobi.

Did people think the same thing about her?

"Begin!" Shikaku threw up his hand and leapt back, clear of both contestants, and Naruto and Sasuke…

Did nothing.

A mutter sprang up among the crowd, and Sakura leaned forward, clasping her hands beneath her knees.

"Lose their nerve?" Suigetsu muttered, and Neji grunted.

"No," he said, and as he did Naruto and Sasuke began walking towards each other with a slow deliberation. "They're not that sort."

Naruto and Sasuke met in the exact center of the arena, and Naruto grinned and raised one hand. The stadium went quiet, people straining to see what was happening. Sakura felt a little laugh escape her; he was making a Seal of Confrontation, two fingers raised straight up, like this was just another spar in the academy. Sasuke mirrored him with a smirk.

Then, they both dropped their hands, bringing them down to meet one another and wrapping their index and middle fingers around the others. Sakura tilted her head: the order of the seals was odd.

"What are they doing?" Haku asked, and Sakura looked over at him, the gesture suddenly clicking in her head.

"Those are the Seals of Confrontation and Reconciliation," she said, and Kabuto and Suigetsu both shifted a fraction of their attention to her as well. Tenten's team was focused on the field: Naruto and Sasuke had both turned and were creating some distance between themselves. "We use them before a fight, to indicate that a spar is starting, and after, to show we're still comrades."

"After, though," Tenten mused. "So if they're doing it now..."

Sakura's realization should have made her heart sink, but instead it woke a wild kind of excitement in her. She wanted to see this fight, she thought, even if it was strange and wrong. Maybe that was why some part of her was so curious. She leaned forward on her bench, fixated on the two boys.

"It's because," she said, "they don't think they'll be able to afterwards."

###

As soon as his students made both seals, Obito knew immediately that they were going to do something stupid.

"That's cute," Rin said, and he looked over at her. They'd both taken seats in one of the higher rows of stands, along with many of the other jonin-sensei. "They tell you what they're up to?"

"Not a thing," Obito said, and both his students turned to face each other once again, having put a couple dozen meters between them. "They're in love with surprises."

The battle started as suddenly as everyone had expected it to. Sasuke made the first move, drawing a brace of shuriken from his back, and Naruto darted sideways as his friend began throwing the stars with reckless abandon. The noise of the crowd swelled with excitement as the Hokage's son ducked, dodged, and weaved through a torrent of steel; Sasuke wasn't holding back, and he unleashed nearly a hundred shuriken in just a couple seconds.

Naruto dodged most of them, but he was immediately on the defensive. Rin sat back with a smirk.

"He's not letting up," she said, and Obito nodded in agreement. "Does he have any-?"

Naruto went through another somersault, and came up with a handful of pebbles from the arena. He shouted something and threw them in a loose spread, and Sasuke leapt backwards, eyes narrowing.

The rocks exploded only a couple feet in front of the Uchiha, throwing up an impressive cloud of dust, fire, and smoke, but barely singing Sasuke's eyebrows.

"He's got it," Obito said. He had spent all his time with Sakura during his team's month of training; he didn't have a clue what his other students might have up their sleeves. Naruto was taking advantage of the distraction, charging straight in through the smoke; Sasuke couldn't see him coming, even with the Sharingan.

Bad idea. Sasuke had always been superior to him in taijutsu. Obito frowned, wondering what his student was thinking. Just as he'd thought, the moment Naruto cleared the smoke with a flying kick, Sasuke detected him. He ducked the blow and struck upwards, lightning fast, wrapping his arms around Naruto's leg like a constricting snake. Naruto didn't have time to react before he was violently thrown over Sasuke's shoulder, slamming into the ground with an audible _thump._

Rin let out a little laugh and winced, and Naruto rolled away, Sasuke pursuing him. The Uchiha leveled a series of kicks at his opponent, but Naruto rolled out of the way of every one of them, the ground cratering where his head had been just moments before. The fourth time he rolled, Obito caught a glimpse of the smile on his face.

The ground under Sasuke detonated with an enormous _KRUMP_ , and a cheer went up throughout the audience at the explosion. Most of them weren't ninja, Obito thought. They couldn't see, at least not right away, that Sasuke had leapt clear of the blast at the last second. The jutsu formula Naruto had laid down in the dirt was clear as day to the Sharingan, after all.

They were both a lot faster. Even if they hadn't been training for a life or death struggle, his students had obviously taken the prospect of the match seriously.

Fifteen meters straight up, Sasuke was running through the handsigns for a Grand Fireball. As the audience took notice of him and another roar of approval went up, he pulled back, taking a deep breath, and spat a ball of fire many times his size down at Naruto directly below him.

Naruto didn't run, which he probably should have. Instead, he took four kunai out, two in each hand, and focused, his chakra covering them in an explosive spiral. He really loved that jutsu, Obito thought. But Naruto had always been attracted to flashy things, and instant explosive tags were definitely that.

Naruto hurled all four kunai into the heart of the fireball when it had crossed half the distance between him and Sasuke, and the whole thing exploded with such violence and fury that for a moment there was a small second sun birthed in the heart of the arena. Obito shielded his eyes, unwilling to look away as Sasuke plummeted into the inferno. As the blast cleared, it became clear that some of his clothes had caught fire; the same went for Naruto. Neither of them seemed to notice: they were absolutely fixated on each other, preparing for the next clash. The audience was going mad at the sound and spectacle.

Naruto put together his hands in a simple seal, and Obito blinked.

' _No way,'_ he thought. _'They wouldn't have been dumb enough to teach him that.'_

There was a burst of smoke, and Sasuke was suddenly falling into ten Naruto's instead of one.

Shadow clones? _Seriously_?

"Shadow Clones?" Rin looked over at him with a wry glance. "Seriously?"

Obito laughed. "As if he wasn't enough trouble on his own," he said, not sure how serious the comment was. Naruto had always had way more chakra than was normal for a kid his age, probably thanks to his parents. He wasn't like another genin, who might accidentally knock themselves out from splitting their chakra too enthusiastically.

But still...

Sasuke landed, and to Obito's surprise was not immediately dogpiled. Naruto and his clones circled him, keeping their distance, and Sasuke looked around, obviously unsure of how to proceed.

He muttered something under his breath, his Sharingan whirling more and more violently, and Obito read his lips from a hundred meters away.

"This is gonna suck."

He charged at the nearest clone, and all of the Naruto's responded at once: the clone fell back, baiting Sasuke farther in, and its compatriots surrounded the Uchiha and threw attacks from every angle.

Sasuke was good. Great, even, when it came to hand-to-hand combat. If he and Naruto sparred with just their fists, Sasuke would win almost every time, even without his Sharingan.

But, Obito noted with an amused grunt, it didn't matter how good you were if eight guys were trying to pound your face in from every direction. At that point, you needed something else. It sparked a distant memory in him, and his fingers ached.

Sasuke took more than a dozen blows, and managed to stay on his feet, fighting back with wild swings and acrobatic kicks. One of the clones popped in a burst of smoke, and Naruto fell back once more, letting Sasuke catch his breath.

"Good time to give up!" he shouted, and each of the clones drew a kunai, explosive formulas whirling over them. Sasuke spat, and Naruto laughed.

"Your choice!" he said, and all the clones threw their knives at once in a brutal crossfire.

Too cocky. Sasuke counterattacked, leaping into a spinning kick and sending four of the nine kunai back at their throwers. The knives exploded in unison. The blasts below him picked Sasuke up and threw him like a ragdoll, spinning through the air and leaving a whorl of blood and burned hair behind him: the ones he'd returned destroyed another five clones, two of them going up at once as they desperately scrambled away from the returned knife.

Sasuke had already figured out the weakness of the detonation jutsu, Obito thought: Naruto couldn't control the timer he set after they left his hand, not unless he picked them up again. Once they were out, they were anyone's weapon, not just his. He was impressed, and even more so when Sasuke landed on his feet, stumbling backwards and patting out some of the fires on his back. That had been a nasty hit, but the boy was still ready to fight.

"Try again," Sasuke grunted, and Naruto frowned. He put his hands together again.

More clones appeared: fifteen this time, joining the surviving four and putting twenty Naruto's on the field. They charged as one, trying to overwhelm Sasuke with sheer numbers. The Uchiha retreated, producing more shuriken. Steel stars flashed out, and three clones disappeared in a puff of smoke. Still, the others poured in, and Sasuke was suddenly in a desperate fight against overwhelming numbers once more.

But this time, he wasn't immediately pushed back or buried in bodies. Obito leaned forward, his eyes narrowing.

Five, fifteen, thirty seconds, and Sasuke was still standing and fighting, throwing himself at Naruto with abandon and taking more hits every second. But he was doing damage: one clone went down, and then another.

"What's up?" Rin asked, leaning forward with him. "He's putting up a hell of a fight, huh?"

"It's not that," Obito muttered. Sasuke wasn't getting faster. If anything, he was slowing down. His movements were getting more and more deliberate, not a single action wasted. He slid between clones, redirecting attacks and slipping around others, and only striking out when he could land a single solid blow. Two more clones disappeared.

Naruto was smiling like a madman, and Sasuke was doing the same. They were both having the time of their life, Obito thought, but they weren't holding back. So why, then, could Sasuke be holding his ground?

As Sasuke spun and fought and bled, Obito focused more and more intensely on him. He closed one eye, and his Mangekyo spooled out in the other, the world gaining just a little more invisible clarity.

Sasuke's chakra was surging, practically exploding inside him. He turned towards Obito, knocking another Naruto into next week with a picture perfect haymaker, and Obito blinked in shock.

Sasuke's eyes were changing. The Sharingan was rotating so quickly that to ordinary eyes the tomoe would appear as one perfect black ring, but even over the enormous distance Obito could perceive the truth.

The two tomoe were splitting off, black pigmentation being left behind in the ring and lingering in the crimson pool of the eye. They coalesced, coming together with an inevitable gravity.

The next time Obito saw Sasuke's eyes, his third tomoe had fully formed.

"What?" Rin asked, and Obito realized he had been completely silent, enraptured by the transformation. He sat back with a sudden breath, and his teammate gave him a funny look.

"Sasuke just evolved his third tomoe," he muttered, and Rin arched an eyebrow.

"Just now?" she asked, looking back at the fight as another three Naruto's disappeared. Sasuke, impossibly, was winning. Twenty against one, and he'd brought the odds down to an equally impossible sounding fifteen to one… and he was still winning. "I thought… the way you got yours…"

"He's not afraid for his life," Obito said. His Mangekyo receded, and he crossed his arms. "He's just… enjoying himself."

"Is that how that goes?" Rin asked. "Have you ever heard of that happening?"

Obito shook his head, and Rin pursed her lips. "You guys barely know more about those eyes than the rest of us, don't you."

He snorted. It wasn't something any Uchiha would say out loud, but Rin was right. Even to its own clan, the Sharingan was a mystery in many ways. Obito had always been told it evolved in life or death situations, and that his Mangekyo had come from an enormous sorrow. That had lined up with his experiences, with Shisui's, and even with Itachi's.

And yet here, now, Sasuke had just brought his Sharingan to the highest level it would hopefully ever go, and all it had taken was a thrilling fight with his best friend.

While Obito wondered what that meant, Sasuke finished off the last of Naruto's clones, and the Hokage's son retreated once more. Sasuke limped after him. They were both tapped out, Obito thought. Sasuke had taken dozens of hits, and ugly bruises were forming all over his body; one of his eyes was covered in blood, leaking from a cut on his forehead. Naruto was bleeding from a couple shallow scratches and had one impressive burn on his cheek, but otherwise looked much better off than Sasuke.

But that wasn't the case, Obito was sure. The blond had produced dozens of large explosive formulas divided his chakra twenty times over. He was breathing heavily, and his feet weren't steady under him. He didn't have infinite energy, no matter how he acted.

Sasuke threw another shuriken, a perfunctory attack, and Naruto smacked it out of the air with the back of his hand and a laugh.

"C'mon!" he said, panting and resting his hands on his knees. "You gotta work for it!"

He leapt back, once, twice, and settled on the other side of the arena, crouching down and watching Sasuke. The Uchiha stopped, and Obito could see he was just as tired as Naruto. The euphoria of his Sharingan's evolution had probably worn off by now, and the reality of his many cuts, bruises, burns, and sprains was setting in. Even if he'd won, he had just fought twenty of Naruto at once.

At this rate, the both of them were going to fall over. The fight had barely been four minutes, and they'd poured their all in from the very beginning. The crowd was going crazy, unable to believe that Sasuke had fought his way out of the press of clones.

"You're right," Sasuke said, settling to one knee. He grinned. "Your choice, Naruto."

He held out both hands, face scrunching up in concentration, and Rin sucked in a breath.

"They can't be that stupid," she said, and as Sasuke clenched his hand into a claw a blue glow sprung up in it, gradually growing in size and violence. Slowly and surely, the Rasengan took shape, its azure light reflected in Sasuke's crimson eyes.

Naruto watched, and Obito watched him. After a second, the boy grinned and stuck out his own hand as well. His Rasengan grew much faster than Sasuke's: he obviously had more practice. After a second, both boys were holding a spinning ball of violent chakra the size of their head in their hands: Naruto in his right, and Sasuke's in his left.

They charged.

"They're that stupid," he confirmed, and the crowd roared in approval.

Both the boys were moving with such speed that Obito was sure the ordinary people in the crowd would only see the glow of the Rasengan, two blue streaks drawing an inexorable line towards an explosive terminus. Dust and grass was kicked up in a great wake, Naruto and Sasuke throwing themselves forward at an incredible pace. It was just a heartbeat before they collided.

Obito had never seen two Rasengan strike each other. When his sensei had invented the jutsu, he probably hadn't conceived of it. It wasn't just a physical collision: the Rasengan were spinning in opposite directions from each other, and when they struck, there was a deafening moment of tension. The violent spheres of chakra ground against one another, throwing out a high-pitched keening sound that blasted through everyone in the arena. Obito felt the vibration in his mouth, like a dentist's drill.

Naruto pushed forward, gritting his teeth, and Sasuke pushed back, both simply trying to overpower the other. The Rasengans followed, squishing into each other, deforming, moving from sphere to oval…

And then, they detonated.

The blast was loud and bright, even more so than any of the explosions that had rocked the arena. Both of the jutsu exploded in a rush of chakra and wind, and both of the boys were sent flying backwards. There was a sonic boom, and an exclamation in the crowd following it. Naruto and Sasuke spun like pinwheels, throwing endless somersaults through the air, and both struck the opposite walls of the arena at the same time with a spectacular _THUD_.

Obito winced, and both his students slumped bonelessly to the ground. They'd be back up for more, he was sure. They were just that stupid and stubborn. Neither of them would be able to condone just lying there.

The crowd waited five seconds, then ten. There wasn't a sound; neither of the ninja moved.

Fifteen seconds. Shikaku walked over to Naruto and bent down, taking his pulse. The blond boy didn't stir. The proctor flickered over to the other side of the arena, almost out of Obito's line of sight, and did the same to Sasuke. He was met with the same reaction.

Obito shook his head, not sure if he should laugh or groan. Rin gave him a disbelieving look. Both of his students were completely out cold.

Shikaku stood up, his hands on his hips, and looked up at the Kage box high in the stands. He shrugged.

"By mutual knockout," he announced, "the match is a tie."

The stadium exploded into noise: protests, cheers, laughter, even some angry yelling. Obito just sat back as Asuma, Rin, and several other jonin heckled him, his face in his hands.

But he was smiling behind them.


	23. Performance

Water, Wrath, Wind, Ice

"Idiots," Neji noted as Naruto and Sasuke were dragged off the field. Sakura shot him a nasty look, and he shrugged. "What else would you call that performance?"

"Not _smart_ ," Sakura admitted, her heart finally slowing down. She had nearly screamed at the both of them when they'd pulled the Rasengan out: what were they thinking, waving around such a dangerous jutsu? If they hadn't intentionally clashed, they could have both been killed by a solid hit. As it was, they were both completely unconscious; she doubted they'd be on their feet anytime soon.

' _Maybe not even by your match.'_

"But they weren't being complete idiots," she finished, and Neji scoffed. "They wanted to put on a show, and…" she gestured to the crowded stands. The whole arena was still losing its mind in both excitement and frustration as her teammates left the ring, carried by Leaf ninja.

"They succeeded." Kabuto cut her off with a grin. "That was quite the match. That jutsu at the end… the Fourth Hokage's, no?" Sakura nodded, and the older boy sat back and adjusted his glasses. "Pretty incredible, for them to have mastered it."

"Yeah," Sakura said, feeling like she had nothing to contribute. "Pretty amazing."

"When is the next match?" Lee asked. "I am next, am I not?" Sakura shrugged: she only knew that she was last.

"You, and Suigetsu Hozuki," Neji said, gesturing to the boy seated behind Lee. Lee turned and gave Suigetsu a grin and a quick bow; all he got in return was a bored suggestion.

"He has a strange body," Neji said flatly. "Be careful with him."

"Interesting thing for a guy with marbles for eyes to say," Suigetsu responded, his tone mild and his eyes narrow. Neji chuckled.

"No need to be rude," he said, and Suigetsu scoffed. "This is just a friendly competition."

"Yeah, so friendly that our Kage are all watching closely," Suigetsu grunted, standing up off his bench and stretching. He sneered at Lee, and the boy frowned. "Sorry that your opponent had to be me."

"Suigetsu," Haku chided, and the boy blew out a breath, stalking out of the room. "The match hasn't even started yet…"

Suigetsu didn't listen. He was already out of the room. What was up with him, Sakura wondered? The boy made of water had always been prickly, but this was a step above. Haku frowned.

"Let me apologize on his behalf," he said, and Lee smiled at him. "He's having a difficult week."

"It is no concern!" Lee gave Haku a thumbs up. "I will apologize as well, in case our match makes it worse!"

Haku laughed. It was a good laugh, Sakura thought, quiet but honest. "It's appreciated."

"Lee, you should get ready." Tenten walked up, and Lee nodded. "You have everything?"

"Ready!" Lee announced, and Tenten shook her head with a grin.

"Remember what sensei said, alright?" she said, and Lee grew a little more somber. Sakura watched the change with interest. She'd never seen the older boy look so serious; it was like his face wasn't made for it. "If you need to go for it…"

"I will go for it," Lee said with utter seriousness. He looked out into the field, and Shikaku gestured with one hand. "Ah! It's time!"

Only a couple minutes between matches, Sakura thought. Hardly a chance to breathe, but then, each competitor had only been given one fight. One fight, so they could go all out and hold nothing back, so they could be as entertaining to the audience mostly composed of people who wouldn't or maybe couldn't know the difference between skill and flashiness.

The thought was as sour as an umeboshi, and Sakura rolled it around her head a little as she watched Lee descend the stairs to the arena, worrying at its bitterness. She wasn't a bitter person, was she? She wasn't an angry person, was she?

_'_ _You're stupid if you think that will last forever. When the month's done-'_

She was still angry, she thought. She was still furious, still feeling that gnawing sensation in her stomach. But that anger had extended beyond Gaara, the bastard who had hurt her classmates and killed those helpless Stone ninja. Now, Sakura could feel nothing but disgust for the people who had traveled all this way just to watch teenagers brutalize each other. For the other ninja, the Daimyo and his representatives, even the other Kage.

She blinked and took a deep breath, trying to center herself. That anger might come in handy, but not right now. Right now, all she was doing was sitting in the stands and shaking. Tenten gave her a curious look.

"Sorry," she said, and Tenten nodded. She understood, Sakura thought. If anyone understood, it would be Tenten. She gave the girl an uncertain smile, and Tenten returned it. A thought flitted across Sakura's consciousness, and she frowned. "Haku," she said, shifting her attention to the Rain ninja next to her, and Haku turned to her expectantly. "I had a question."

"About?" Haku asked, and Sakura watched Tenten and Neji bend their ears as well. Kabuto was apparently oblivious, looking around the arena with a curious expression. Suigetsu had just stepped out onto the field, and was heading for the center; Lee would be right behind him.

"The Amekage," Sakura said, the world both familiar and foriegn. Haku nodded. "I thought you told me, back in the forest, that it was Yahiko. A guy." She gestured up at the Kage's booth, at the woman with blue hair. "Is that-?"

"No," Haku laughed, and Sakura did as well. She had thought that maybe Yahiko was like Haku; just so pretty they could pass as a girl without question. "When I told you that, Sakura, I think you misunderstood me. I said that Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko were our Kage."

"So you meant that-?" Sakura asked, and Haku nodded.

"That is Konan," she said. "All three of them share the Kage's duties; Konan is most often the one who travels outside of the village."

"Interesting," Tenten murmured. "So you have three Kage?"

"We have one Kage," Kabuto said with a genial smile, "but three people hold the position."

"What's the difference?" Tenten asked, unimpressed, and Kabuto shrugged.

"Perhaps it's only academic to you," he said, "but it's important to the Nation of Rain." He gestured at his hitai-ate. "This used to be four lines; now, it's three. But they all form one symbol, right?" Tenten nodded, and Kabuto grinned. "See? It's simple."

Sakura wasn't sure she got it. If three people could be recognized as the Kage, that just meant there were three Kage, surely. One Kage and three people just sounded like sophistry to her. She didn't say anything, though; what would be the point of arguing about it?

"It's starting," Neji said, and Sakura turned her attention back to the field.

Lee and Suigetsu had met in the middle of the field under Shikaku's watchful eye. There was no sign or mark; Shikaku simply raised his hand, and the battle began.

Lee took the initiative, rushing forward. Sakura had seen his tremendous speed before, but it still surprised her every time. He closed the five meters between himself and Suigetsu so fast that Sakura only saw a green blur, and lashed out with a single straightforward haymaker.

Suigetsu's head exploded, and Lee backed off. If he was surprised, he didn't show it beyond a slight widening of his eyes. The boy from Rain walked forward, closing the distance as his head reformed.

"I know your schtick, Rock Lee," he said, and Sakura was surprised to see Lee back off, considering his options. "We were all told to watch out for you; a master of taijutsu, and nothing else."

"That is very flattering!" Lee declared. "But I am not yet a master: merely a hard worker!" He struck out again, a blinding roundhouse kick, and Suigetsu's arm shot down. In a blink, it grew enormous and grotesquely muscled; he caught Lee's leg and held it fast, and the boy blinked.

Suigetsu punched out, and Lee jumped into another kick, spinning and striking his opponent in the chest. Suigetsu fell apart in a welter of liquid, his grip loosening, and Lee scuttled away like a spider on all fours, putting ten meters between them in an instant.

Lee continued retreating and Suigetsu languidly pursued, clearly in no hurry. Sakura couldn't blame him. Could Lee even hurt the ninja from Rain? She'd cut his head clean off and he hadn't even flinched. Lee only had his feet and fists: no matter how hard you punched, you couldn't destroy water.

She glanced at the exit. Sasuke or Naruto could have taken care of this guy easily with their ninjutsu, but even though Rock Lee could have beaten them in the same position, he was apparently helpless. Sakura was sure even the least observant people in the audience were thinking the same thing.

' _Sorry that your opponent had to be me.'_

"This isn't going to be a fun fight," Sakura muttered, and to her surprise Tenten gave her a grin.

"Don't write him off just because the guy's slippery," she said, showing some teeth. Kabuto nodded.

"Suigetsu would be a fool to think the rest will go the same," he said, and Sakura glanced at him as Lee kept running away. "Which… he sometimes is."

When there was twenty meters between himself and Suigetsu, Lee stopped and reached into his pouch. His hand emerged clutching a small flask and a smaller box.

"Oh?" Haku leaned forward. "That probably won't work…"

As Sakura watched, eyes wide, Lee upended the flask over his hands, spilling a thick dark liquid all over the bandages that covered them.

"This wasn't a good idea," Neji noted, and Tenten snorted.

"Shut up," she said goodnaturedly. "It was _his_ idea, you could at least wait to see if it works first."

Oil, Sakura thought, leaning forward with Haku and watching the match more intently. Suigetsu was drawing closer: Lee removed a match from the small box and struck it against the side, chakra keeping the small stick from slipping from his oiled grip. Was he seriously-?

All at once, with a sudden bright violence, Lee's hands caught fire.

Suigetsu laughed. "For real? That's not going to-!"

Lee surged forward, much slower than before. The fire wasn't chakra, Sakura thought, barely able to believe what Lee was doing. If he moved too fast, his own speed would put it out, even with the oil. But even with that handicap, he still had a solid advantage in speed over Suigetsu.

Suigetsu blocked with a swollen arm, and Lee punched it in half, spilling excess burning oil over the boy as he struck. Before Suigetsu could react, Lee struck out again, burying a burning fist in Suigetsu's chest.

The Rain ninja screamed. Sakura flinched back at the sound; it was shrill and loud, almost like a kettle coming to boil. Beside her, Haku frowned.

"Ha!" Lee kicked out, knocking Suigetsu's legs out from under him: they stayed solid, and Sakura wondered why. She hadn't even been sure Suigetsu _could_ stay solid with how often he splattered when struck. "How do you like the flames of-?"

Suigetsu screamed again, and his head and torso liquified. It ran, still screaming, up Lee's arm as the boy jumped back in shock. Before Sakura could believe it, the water that had been Suigetsu poured into Lee's mouth and nose, completely smothering him.

Lee batted at his own face with his flaming hands, his movements growing frantic, as Suigetsu's legs toppled over, ownerless. Tenten's teammate stumbled around, growing more and more desperate as he tried to remove the water from his face, but he was totally unable to dislodge it. Sakura's hands curled into fists.

How long could Lee hold his breath? He'd been in the middle of an attack, just finished breathing out as he landed his kick. With no preparation, could he manage a minute? Maybe a little more? After five more seconds of fruitless action, Lee came to a stop, closing his eyes and centering himself.

"Lee…" Tenten muttered, and Sakura glanced at her. Her friend looked worried; her whole face was scrunched up, and her hands were opening and clenching rhythmically, searching for a weapon to hold.

Lee exploded.

Not literally, to Sakura's relief. But the boy's whole body erupted, chakra streaming off of him with such clarity and violence that it was visible to the naked eye, like a tornado of bright blue and gold light. Lee silently screamed, and the storm of chakra doubled, then tripled in size. His muscles and veins bulged and twitched: his skin grew ugly, strained and puce, and he reared back, soundlessly roaring at nothing.

The water covering his face was pushed back for just a moment, not clearing the skin but forced away by the sheer force of his chakra. Lee punched up, and the sheer velocity and violence of his punch struck the water with such force that a third of it was torn away in an instant. His nose broke with a brutally loud crack, and blood began running down his face, mixing with Suigetsu's water.

Lee threw several more punches, snuffing out the flames on his hand in an instant, and cleared all the water from his face. But Sakura could already tell it was too late: even if the water on his face was gone, there was still too much remaining in his nose and throat. He still couldn't breathe, and the water was fighting back with all of Suigetsu's strength, further strangling him and crushing his broken nose.

He screamed again, a faint sound issuing from his throat, and kicked at the ground, producing a crater nearly as big as himself. But it was all but over: Lee stumbled around, his enormous strength completely wasted, and gradually but inevitably drowned standing up in the middle of the arena.

When he collapsed, the crowd was silent. Water, more than Sakura had imagined, poured out of his face, and Suigetsu took over a minute to reform, painfully dragging himself back together. When he was complete, he looked down at his unconscious opponent, snarled, and spat.

"Dumbass," he muttered, and then Shikaku stepped up.

"Suigetsu Hozuki is the winner," he said, and some scattered applause emerged around the arena. He nodded to the Rain ninja, who did not' acknowledge him. Suigetsu just headed for the arena exit.

Sakura had no idea what to feel, and even less of what to say as Lee's unconscious body was removed from the arena. She looked around, half worried that the spectator box was about to grow violent.

But neither Tenten nor Neji moved. They were rigid; Tenten closed her eyes.

"That was unfortunate," Neji said after almost thirty seconds of silence. Tenten simply nodded in agreement, and Sakura found herself doing the same. What more was there to say?

"Forgive him," Haku said. "That was… cruel."

Isn't that what being a ninja is, Sakura thought, but she couldn't bring herself to speak the truth aloud. Didn't you say something like that in the forest yourself, Haku? There's an inherent cruelty to shinobi. Suigetsu was just doing what he had to to win.

Maybe she would have said it if it were just the two of them. But with Tenten right there, Sakura felt something restraining her from speaking her mind. Maybe good sense, rationality. Maybe something else. She might never be sure.

"I'm next," Neji said, already leaving.

"Your match isn't-" Sakura started to say, before Neji turned and locked eyes with her. Her words died in her throat. He looked murderous. His eyes slowly shifted over, resting on the back of Haku's head, and Sakura was astonished to feel a slight defensive instinct. She couldn't be one-hundred percent sure that Neji wouldn't strike Haku from behind in that moment.

He was filled with nothing but fury. Sakura let him leave in silence, and Tenten did the same. The void persisted for several minutes as the audience muttered and the field was set for the next fight. Across the arena, Sakura caught a flicker of movement: the Sand ninja, Kankuro, was making his way down to the field.

"Hey!" She jolted at the voice and turned around, a smile already slipping across her face. Naruto and Sasuke were both stepping into the observation room, and Sakura rose to meet them.

"You dumbasses!" she exploded, and Naruto's grin morphed to a shocked expression. It only grew more exaggerated when she gave him a hug, and then Sasuke after. They both gave her a bemused look.

"That's fair," Sasuke noted, and Sakura laughed, feeling a wild relief overtake her. They were both fine. They'd get to see her fight.

"What were you thinking?" she demanded, stepping back. "What if you'd hit each other?"

"We weren't gonna hit each other," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "Not with his Sharingan. Besides, we set it up."

"Set it up?"

"Course." Naruto grinned. "If we were both still standing after a couple minutes."

"We agreed to it yesterday," Sasuke elaborated, picking at a scab on the back of his hand. "Whoever was able to get up afterwards would make Chunin, we were sure." He frowned. "But…"

"You didn't think it would be neither of you," Kabuto said mildly, and Naruto laughed, rubbing the back of his head, where there was no doubt a horrific bruise. "There's a lesson there."

"Don't smash jutsu like that together?" Naruto suggested, and the boy from Rain chuckled.

"Respect your limits," he said, a little somberly. A nodded in the direction of the arena, and Sakura realized that both Neji and Kankuro were already on the field. "The next fight's starting."

"Did Lee lose?" Naruto asked, taking a seat on Sakura's left as Sasuke walked up to lean against the railing. "We passed Neji on the way here. He seemed really pissed."

"Yeah," Sakura confirmed. "Suigetsu beat him."

Naruto stuck out his tongue. "That sucks. Good for him, I guess. That must have been a crappy fight."

"It was a poor match-up," Haku said, a little subdued. Sakura wondered where Suigetsu had gone: he hadn't come back to the observation box. "Rock Lee likely could have defeated anyone else here." He leaned back with a curious look. "Perhaps even Gaara of the Desert, with that last technique."

Sakura wondered how true that was. What else would that explosion of chakra have caused? Increased Lee's speed and strength, perhaps? If that were the case, he might have evaded Gaara's sand and beaten the boy's face in. She would have liked to see that.

Instead of…

Shikaku raised his hand, and the third battle began.

Kankuro ran away immediately, and Neji strolled after him, completely at ease. The boy from Sand created more and more distance between them, circling around the arena, and Neji pursued without any urgency. His gait was relaxed, but his Byakugan was active.

There was a threat boiling off of him, as obvious as steam or fire, Sakura thought. If Kankuro got too close, Neji would completely destroy him, to a degree he'd never subjected Naruto or Sasuke to. Sakura was sure of it.

The 'fight' continued as that awkward, distant dance for another twenty seconds. Because of that initial sedate pace, Sakura almost missed its conclusion. When Neji was in the southern quadrant of the arena, Kankuro made a series of twisted hand-sign.

The ground around Neji exploded, and something lanky and brown erupted out of the earth beneath the Hyuuga's feet, extending four arms and two legs in a huge, deadly bear hug. Blades extended from its limbs, and it spat needles and dust from its yawning mouth. Sakura leaned forward, the moment frozen in time; she had no idea what she was seeing. Kankuro closed his hands, and the thing that had appeared from underground mimicked the motion, closing all its limbs like a huge set of scissors.

Neji gave it a bored look, and spun.

A sphere of chakra erupted out of him, almost like a Rasengan but huge and diffuse, surrounding Neji's entire body. Sakura blinked, and the controlled storm of chakra tore the attacker apart, sending its limbs flying in every direction as its body exploded. The head flew straight up, its huge shock of fuzzy brown hair waving in the wind.

Neji came to a stop, and the head hit the ground. It bounced, and he kicked it out of the air right at Kankuro, his face twisting into a sneer. The boy from Sand caught the bloodless head with both hands at his chest and stared down at it, motionless, his eyes wide.

"A puppet will never be as strong as your body," Neji said, clearly, coldly. "You could never defeat me with a toy."

Sakura thought Kankuro was going to scream, or charge, or do anything at all, but he just stared down at the head. His hands were shaking. With anger? Fear? Frustration? She'd never know. He jerked one of them up with a snarl.

"I forfeit," he said, spitting the words out like they burned his mouth. "I cannot continue."

Shikaku nodded; the audience was silent, obviously shocked, until he waved and declared Neji the winner. A huge cheer went up: even if the fight had been short, the conclusion had been exciting instead of depressing, and that was all most of them wanted.

Sakura looked to the Kage's box, curious what they would be thinking. They were all still seated. From this distance, she couldn't perceive more than that.

"What the hell was that?" Naruto asked, poking Tenten on the shoulder. "Since when-"

"It's a Hyuuga technique," Tenten said, glancing over her shoulder at Haku, and she didn't say anything more than that.

Of course. Haku and Kabuto were from another village. Why would Tenten explain her teammate's techniques with them around? Sakura hadn't even considered it, and apparently, neither had Naruto.

Neji returned soon after, and grudgingly received a fistbump from Tenten. Kankuro spent more time in the field than his opponent had, rushing around and picking up the pieces of his puppet. He carried them in a bundle in his arms as he retreated out of sight, fretting over them like a distraught parent.

"He buried it before the match," Neji told Sasuke, answering his unspoken question. "Not against the rules, I suppose."

"Tch. Clever."

"Not clever enough."

Sakura wondered where Lee was. Surely, he must have woken up by now? Things seemed to be going faster and faster. Each match was getting shorter than the last.

Would hers be the shortest?

"I'm next," Kabuto said, standing up. He paused, and carefully took his glasses off, handing them off to Haku. He took them with a casual reverence, placing them gently in his lap. "Hold onto them, would you?"

"Of course," Haku said, always so sincere, and Kabuto walked away with a straight back.

"Doesn't he need them?" Naruto asked, and Haku shrugged.

"I don't know," he said, and Naruto laughed at the admission. "His eyesight was damaged as a child, but I don't know how badly. He's not blind without them."

"Is he worried they're going to be broken?" Sakura asked, feeling like it was an obvious question, probably because it was. Haku nodded.

"All three of the ninja from Sand are the Kazekage's children," he said, and Sakura started. How had Haku known that? How had she not? The other two ninja were Gaara's _siblings_? Why were they so normal, compared to him? "Even if the first went down without much of a fight, that's no guarantee his sister will be the same."

Kabuto waited in the arena for nearly two minutes before his opponent arrived, carrying an enormous war fan. Sakura watched with bated breath: when the match started, Kabuto immediately rushed forward, leading with a knife.

Temari of the Desert jumped back and swung.

A hurricane appeared out of nowhere, picked up Kabuto like a limp doll, and threw him to the other side of the arena. He hit the wall, slammed to the ground, rolled, and came up running.

That certainly would have broken his glasses, then and there. Sakura narrowed her eyes as Kabuto began strafing around the arena, avoiding more gusts of wind by a hair. This time, when the wind slammed into the wall, it left deep gouges in the concrete, like a storm of blades.

It was the same thing time and again, she thought. She looked over at Haku as surreptitiously as possible: the beautiful boy was watching his teammate fight, blind to the rest of the world as Kabuto evaded razor wind by just inches once more. The team from Rain always seemed to be the most well-informed. They always knew exactly who they were up against. They'd sought out her team in the forest; Suigetsu had said he'd been warned about Rock Lee, and Haku had said the same about them.

All ninja were supposed to know their enemy. Know the enemy, know their weaknesses, win. That was one of the base creeds of being a shinobi. But all of the people here, they were just genin. Watching out for the Hokage's son was one thing. Minato Namikaze was one of the most infamous men alive, it was just common sense to know his family.

But Rock Lee was an orphan. A fourteen year old orphan who was strong and fast, but who hadn't made a name for himself outside of the village. Who would have told Suigetsu he was a master of taijutsu? Who must have told Kabuto that Temari specialized in ranged Wind jutsu, which could shatter his glasses in an instant? Why else would he have given them to Haku, when he'd gone into the forest with them without hesitation, and why else would he have charged ahead straight away, trying to close the distance so desperately when everyone else had been so cautious? How had Kabuto recognized the Rasengan, and how had Haku known the ninja from Sand were all the Kazegake's children?

Sakura had always had an ember of suspicion in her heart, but now it was growing into a flame. She kept herself from looking at Haku again. The boy would notice. What had he been told about Tenten? Had he already figured out a way to beat her?

Her heart beat a drum against her ribs as Kabuto struggled for his life in the arena below. Temari was completely relentless. Whenever Kabuto advanced, she pushed him back with her fan. In short order he was pinned down in a copse of trees near the arena's walls, on the opposite side from the observation box. He couldn't leave without getting shredded, Sakura was sure.

Forfeit, she wanted to say, feeling the hypocritical thought burning her brain. You're in a helpless situation. You can't attack. You'll just get hurt. Forfeit now.

Was that the mature answer, the answer of a Chunin? Sakura would never be sure, because at that moment Kabuto burst out of the trees, accompanied by several clones. They all made a beeline for Temari on a half dozen different vectors, and the girl sneered. Her scything wind cut through two: they were simple bunshin, and the jutsu passed through them without effect.

Temari backed up as the clones drew closer, cutting through another three and leaving only a single Kabuto. The real one, surely. She swept her fan once more at nearly point blank range, and Sakura flinched, ready for the boy to be slammed back again-

And the wind passed through him without effect.

Temari blinked, and Kabuto burst out of the earth behind her, swinging his fist around in a deadly arc.

He'd dug through the earth while Temari was occupied with his clones. Sakura was a little jealous: it was a simple but effective strategy, and he'd executed it so effectively that Temari hadn't even noticed her real opponent hadn't been charging her.

Kabuto was fast, and he'd struck at the perfect moment, but somehow, Temari was just as quick. She didn't try to dodge. Her opponent was too close for that. Instead, she just swung back; not with her fan, but with a knife that had dropped out of her sleeve.

Kabuto's fist struck her in the temple, knocking her sideways in a brutal arc, but Temari's counterattack scored a deep cut along the length of his arm: blood flew freely across the field, and Sakura hissed in sympathetic pain. Temari tumbled, keeping hold of both the knife and her fan, and Kabuto charged after her.

' _I don't like fighting_. _'_ It was true, Sakura thought. There was just a hint of hesitation to Kabuto's actions. He was brilliant and skilled, but that moment of pause had just gotten his arm cut, and it was about to cost him more. Temari came to her feet, already sweeping her fan.

It wasn't a complete jutsu: the wind that emerged was short and dull, not the razor hurricane it had been before. But at point blank range, it picked up Kabuto and threw him back, opening up shallow cuts all across his chest. As he fell back, he threw a knife just as the wind abated. The blade buried itself in Temari's shoulder, and the girl ignored it, bringing her fan back for a final attack.

That was it. The whole arena knew it at once, with a single joined breath. Kabuto was a sitting duck in an open field, with Temari's jutsu about to crash down on him. He could not hope to dodge anymore.

Temari swung, and Sakura watched with astonishing clarity as the wind tore the field before her to shreds. Kabuto didn't have time to do more than cross his arms over his torso.

He was a medic. He was protecting his vitals. Sakura was amazed he had the presence of mind for it. But it saved his life. When the wind struck him, Kabuto wasn't torn open. The invisible blades sawed through his arms, nearly severing one of his hands, and there was a sudden explosion of blood.

Kabuto toppled backwards, writhing and feeding the dirt his blood, and the crowd roared.

' _Scum.'_ Sakura was grinding her teeth. That and her heart nearly drowned out the rest of the arena. _'They're cheering at his blood.'_

Temari paused, waiting with her fan cocked for Kabuto to rise. The boy didn't give her a reason to attack again; he slowly stilled, calming down and lying flat on his back as his shredded arms soaked his clothes and the ground. His left hand was flayed; Sakura could see the bone through the shreds of muscle, and she felt her gorge rise at the sight.

"You done?" Temari called out. There was still a kunai embedded in her shoulder, and blood was steadily running down her arm and dripping from her fingers, staining her fan. "Or does it need to be your neck next?"

Had she been aiming the wind? That would be incredible. Kabuto slowly raised his less damaged hand, though it was still covered in lacerations.

"I'm done fighting you," he said, sitting up with infinite caution. He didn't look scared; he pinned Temari with frightening, sincere eyes, and smiled. "The victory is yours."

Shikaku appeared between them, and nodded. Temari relaxed marginally, and lowered her fan. The proctor looked to Kabuto.

"We'll need a medic," he muttered, and Kabuto laughed.

"No need," he said, and the crowd leaned in. He began carefully running his hand over himself, a green glow springing up. Sakura couldn't believe it. He was going to use his medical jutsu on himself, right in the middle of the arena?

It was brilliant, she realized. Kabuto couldn't have won this match, so… no, that would be insane.

Who would willingly let themselves nearly get slaughtered, just so they could show off their abilities as a medic?

And yet, that was just what Kabuto was doing. He reattached his hand, growing back skin and muscle like some grotesque time lapse. The lacerations on his chest shrunk away to nothing and left behind soft pink skin, visible through the cuts in his shirt. The same happened to his arm. After two minutes of silence, he stood up, and left the arena under his own power.

A soft murmur arose across the whole audience, growing in volume until after several seconds it was a continuous wave. Civilians gasped, and shinobi muttered. Sakura watched the more experienced ones lean forward, watching with interest, looking for a limp where there was none.

If that had been on purpose, Sakura thought, Kabuto really was a genius. A mad one, but a genius all the same. He'd been the one to lose, but there certainly wasn't anyone looking at Temari as she left. All eyes were on Kabuto.

It gave her an idea.

"Wow." The whisper drew Sakura's attention to Naruto, enraptured at her side. "He just… fixed himself up."

Sakura nodded, feeling herself draw inward. Only one fight left… and it wasn't one she wanted to watch. "He's pretty incredible," she said quietly. Naruto's face was practically shining with admiration, and she couldn't blame him. Fixing Sasuke's arm had been one thing: what they'd just seen was something else entirely.

On her other side, Haku stirred. Sakura glanced over at him, and he gave her a small grin. "It's nice to have, don't you think?" he said sincerely. His eyes slid to Tenten's back. "Even if I lose, I'll have someone to fix me up."

Tenten turned, quirking her eyebrows at both of them. "We're next," she said, reaching down and affixing the scroll she'd placed next to her to her back. She bowed sarcastically. "Ladies first."

"I'm a guy," Haku said phlegmatically, and gestured graciously towards the door. Tenten blanched, eyes darting to Sakura. Sakura just closed her eyes forlornly and nodded, sure they were thinking the same thing.

' _It's just not fair.'_

Tenten recovered her composure and laughed. "Alright," she said, taking the lead. "I'll give you that one." She left first, and after a moment Haku rose and followed her. Sakura turned, watching them leave.

"I'll be right back," she muttered, and Naruto gave her a curious look. Sakura slid off the bench and went after both her friends, not quite sure what she was doing.

She caught Haku in the corridor at the bottom of the stairs, and the boy turned as Sakura let her footsteps sound out, a hint of concern flitting over his face. "Sakura?"

What are you doing? Who told you about Lee? Were you told about Tenten? Dozens of questions surged through Sakura's head all at once, leaving her momentarily paralyzed. What came out wasn't exactly what she'd wanted.

"You're hiding something," she said, and Haku's face tightened up a little. He didn't look mad, but it was so far off his normal relaxed expression that Sakura noticed it immediately. "I don't know what, and it's probably nothing, but…"

"We are shinobi," Haku said, so careful, so neutral. Sakura felt an unwelcome sneer tug at her lips. "It is in our nature to hide things."

"Ours, or yours?" Sakura asked, stepping forward. Haku didn't retreat: they grew closer. "I didn't hide anything from you. That night, I was totally honest with you."

"That's true," Haku said with a smile. "You're an honest and kind person, Sakura. It's admirable."

Sakura frowned. "If you really think that, then give me a bit of honesty in return," she said, and Haku's smile faded. "You and your teammates knew a lot about us."

"About your teammates," Haku said quietly. "Not you."

"Not just them," Sakura pressed. "About Rock Lee too. And Kabuto, he knew that Temari was a ninjutsu specialist. That's why he gave you his glasses. Right?" Where had they gone, she suddenly thought. Did Haku still have them? She hadn't seen him leave them behind, but he was heading to the arena now, and Kabuto was nowhere in sight. Just like Lee...

"That's possible," Haku admitted, and that all but confirmed it for Sakura. She took a final step forward, only a foot or so away now.

"How? And why?" she said, and Haku blinked. "We're just genin. How could you have found out that much, and why would you care? This is only an exam. You told me yourself that Rain thinks this is just a show. Did your Kage care that much about you winning?"

Haku regarded her with cold eyes, and after a moment, sighed. "It's not that," he said, stepping back for the first time. Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Sakura… do you…"

"Hey." Tenten stepped around the corner, fingers drumming against her leg, and Haku stepped back even further, clamming up. "Chatting in the dark?" She grinned. "Can I join?"

Sakura glanced back and forth between the two of them. "It was nothing," she decided after a moment, and Haku gave her a look she couldn't read. Gratitude, maybe? "You two should get out to the field."

"That's the idea," Tenten said dryly, and Sakura bit her lip.

"Take…" she said, and then faltered. "Take it easy on each other, won't you? I don't want either of you getting hurt."

Haku and Tenten both snorted, and then laughed at the mirrored sound.

"We're shinobi," Haku said, and Sakura's heart sank. "Like I told you Sakura… it's not in our nature."

"Hey, no worries," Tenten said, striding forward and clapping her hand down on Sakura's shoulder. She gave Haku a fierce smile. "I'll make sure the fight's short."

"I wish you the best of luck," Haku said warmly, and then turned and walked out of sight, leaving Sakura and Tenten behind. The older girl chuckled.

"He's cocky," she said, and Sakura laughed uncomfortably. Which was worse, this fight, or that hers was after? "Any tips?"

Sakura shook her head. "He's fast, and perceptive. He can paralyze people with senbon. I don't know any more than that."

"Senbon huh? That's traditional," Tenten said appreciatively. "You'll cheer me on, right?"

"Of course," Sakura lied, and Tenten smiled.

"Get back up there," she said. "You gotta rest for your fight, alright? Try to calm down a little."

Was she stupid? How could she _possibly_ be calm? Sakura resisted the urge to scream and gave Tenten's arm a squeeze, before she broke away and trudged back up the stairs.

' _What if they kill each other?'_

She stepped back out into the sun, and Sasuke gave her a lazy wave.

' _What if Gaara kills me?'_

Sakura made her way to the railing, consumed by her own thoughts, and waited for the fight to start.

Tenten and Haku met in the middle of the field, just a couple meters away from the bloody stain Kabuto had left behind. As Shikaku was looking between them, making sure they were both ready, they did something none of the other competitors had: they gave one another a short bow, barely more than an inclination of their heads.

Sakura bit her lip, and behind her, Naruto put his hand on her shoulder.

"Begin."

Both shinobi leapt back; knives fell into Tenten's hands, and needles into Haku's.

Sakura didn't want to watch, but she couldn't look away. Her friends danced around the arena, probing one another's defenses with countless thrown weapons. Tenten didn't take even a scratch; she struck everything sent her way out of the air with her unerring accuracy, and eventually Haku switched solely to evasion, realizing he would never be able to reach her.

Tenten took that opportunity to go on the offensive, bombarding the Rain ninja with hundreds of shuriken, senbon, and kunai, more and more weapons pouring out of her scroll every moment. Haku ducked, slid, and leapt around the arena, but Tenten was true to her word: she never missed what she was aiming for, and despite his best efforts Haku quickly began to sustain dozens of small wounds.

The turning point came just a minute in. Haku dove forward out of the way of another brace of shuriken, and Tenten smirked. Her fingers danced, and Sakura winced as she saw the glint of nearly invisible strings shining in the air.

Haku turned, eyes wide in shock, just in time for three of the shuriken that had missed him to slam into his left arm. They struck with incredible force, enough to send him skidding backwards; blood was already running in rivers down his forearm. Sakura flinched.

"Well done," Neji muttered, and Sakura felt a helpless anger at him. Down in the arena, Haku was trying to pluck the shuriken from his arm, but they were stuck fast. The steel strings vibrated with an invisible energy.

"Sasuke, did she-?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke nodded.

"She's running her chakra through the wire," he confirmed. He glanced at Neji. "Did you know about this?"

"We developed it together," Neji said, prideful as ever. "A way for her to pin down any opponent." He smirked and gestured at Haku as the ninja from Rain gave up on pulling the shuriken from his arm. "It's the same principle as tree walking; they'll never come out."

"Give up," Tenten called out, pulling with one hand and producing more kunai in the other. "You're a sitting duck!"

Haku experimentally tried to saw through one of the wires with a knife, keeping one eye on Tenten, and his furtive movement drew a chuckle up in the audience.

"Alright," Haku sighed, and raised one hand in a simple sign. The blood flowing down his arm crystallized into a wedge of red ice, shaping itself into a long crimson blade.

Tenten froze as well, watching the jutsu with narrowed eyes. Sakura blinked.

One hand sign. An ice jutsu. That was far more advanced than the water jutsu she'd been expecting. Was ice even possible? Could that be a-?

The wire went slack. Haku charged.

Sakura wanted Tenten to fall back, but instead she drew a short spear in one hand and began spooling in the wires connecting her fingers and Haku's shoulder in the other with quick, dexterous motions. She wrapped the steel wire tight around her hand like a dog's owner would its leash, leaving a bit of slack as they prepared for it to lunge, and braced her spear.

The moment of impact was understated: Haku twisted around the spear, unwilling to impale himself, and struck out with his ice blade as he spun, trying to sever either the weapon or Tenten's arm. Tenten pulled back, slamming her right arm out, and the wires yanked Haku's ice blade off course. The attack harmlessly sliced through the air at Tenten's side, and her spear passed over Haku's shoulder, so close Sakura couldn't see the gap between the weapon's shaft and Haku's body.

Both shinobi shifted, weighing their options for a clear moment that existed in the space between their heartbeats. Tenten kicked out, trying to drive Haku back, and Haku met the kick with his knee, pressing forward and bringing his blade to bear. He made another one-handed sign as he did, and ice spread off his knee onto Tenten's leg. It began creeping up her shin, and Tenten spun, bringing the shaft of the spear around and trying to strike Haku in the temple with it.

Haku ducked, forced to back away by the spinning spear and another kick, and Tenten surged forward, uncaring of the ice weighing her leg down. The spear swung around her in a brilliant steel tracery, drawing an infinity symbol in the dust kicked up by their scuffle. The crowd was roaring for both of them, pushing them on, but Sakura was silent.

The boy from Rain weighed his options, and in his moment of hesitation, the same kind of hesitation that Kabuto had shown in the match before, Tenten yanked on her wires and tugged him forward, into range of her spear. She struck out four, five, six times, four lightning stabs and two brutal slashes. Haku slipped around all but one of the attacks: the final stab nicked his cheek and notched his ear, a small and bloody cut.

"Ha!" Tenten exclaimed, planting the spear in the crook of her shoulder and wrapping her hand around it like a snake, drawing it in even shorter and making it an extension of her arm. "Your-!"

Haku snarled and stomped, and a ring of ice exploded out of the ground around him, a thin line of his own spears. Tenten jumped back, her reflexes saving her from being impaled, but the ice cleanly snapped off the head of her spear and opened two nasty cuts on her left leg.

Tenten drew another weapon, a glaive with a short, wide blade this time. She was committed to keeping Haku at a distance, and for good reason. His ice jutsu were terrifying. But Haku didn't make the same mistake twice. He retreated, darting away from Tenten and heading for the corner of the arena.

The stream, Sakura realized with a jolt. The little stream that ran through the corner, practically forgotten in all the violence. Tenten must have understood as well, because she took off after her opponent, shattering the ice on her leg with an errant punch and pulling back on the wires once again. Haku's arm was yanked back, and he stopped in his tracks, glaring down at the shuriken.

He slapped his hand down on his arm, and yelped in pain. Sakura leaned forward, her heart beating faster at the sound, and Tenten paused. A second later, the shuriken fell away…

Along with nearly an inch of Haku's arm.

Sakura flinched, but there was no more blood. There was a thick sheath of ice over the wound. Haku had frozen his own flesh and ripped it right off, and the shuriken with it. He'd covered the wound with his own frozen chakra.

As Tenten whipped the shuriken and the hunk of Haku's flesh around with the wires, suddenly in possession of a new and gruesome weapon, Haku dove backwards, covering the final couple meters to the stream, and submerged himself in the shallow water. Sakura half-expected the stream to freeze over, but to her shock the exact opposite happened. The water exploded into steam, and Haku emerged from it like a bloody shadow, his other wounds freezing over.

"You put up an admirable fight, Tenten of the Leaf," he said, and Tenten readied her glaive, shifting her footing. She was off-guard, Sakura could tell. The display of ninjutsu had intimidated her, and so had Haku's ability to seal his own wounds. From her strategy so far, she had probably planned on bleeding Haku into helplessness.

But that obviously wasn't possible. She would have to take more serious measures.

She approached, one step at a time, whipping the shuriken attached to the wires wrapped around her hand in a wide arc, and keeping the glaive steady before her as she did. Haku began running through hand-signs. Nearly ten, so fast that Sakura blinked and the sequence was done.

The steam around him collaseced, quickly growing solid. But it didn't collapse.

Instead, a fleet of gleaming ice mirrors formed in the air, suspended by Haku's chakra. Tenten stopped, unwilling to approach an unknown jutsu, and Haku stepped backwards into a mirror that formed behind him. Stepped _into_ it, slipping into the flat surface as though it were a hidden door.

"Accept my apology," he said, and then he was gone. The mirrors slowly orbited, as though Tenten was her own little planet with dozens of iridescent reflective moons.

Tenten took an uncertain step forward, and all at once the air was filled with dozens of shimmering shards of ice.

Needles of ice, Sakura thought, the moment stretching out as Tenten started to move like half-frozen syrup dripping down a refrigerator's wall. It was another part of Haku's jutsu, an artificial storm of senbon to replace the real ones. Were the mirrors projecting the needles by themselves? She could see Haku's reflection in all the mirrors, but it shimmered, inconsistent and constantly moving.

No, she thought. That wasn't possible.

Tenten moved, spinning her glaive and trying to deflect as many of the needles as possible, but too many made it through her hasty defense. She instantly transformed into a porcupine, stuck through with tens of icey senbon several inches long. Three pierced entirely through the meat of her right arm, and the limb went limp, uselessly hanging at Tenten's side. The wires wrapped around it dragged in the dust.

She roared, and smashed one of the mirrors into shards in return. Haku didn't care: his reflection stared out of the remaining ones unperturbed.

"No!" Sakura hissed, and Neji frowned.

"There's no way," he said, leaning forward and placing both hands on the railing. "It's like he's in all the mirrors at once."

"It's a trick," Sasuke said. Sakura couldn't tell if he was angry or impressed. "He's moving between the mirrors." Sakura jerked her head towards him, her question obvious. "It's so fast that it looks like he's all of them at once, but it's an optical illusion." He grimaced. "And he can attack from every direction… it's almost like the Yondaime's jutsu. His body is being transformed into pure chakra." The grimace grew deeper, more suspicious. "That's not a normal jutsu. It's gotta be a Kekkei Genkai."

A bloodline? Sakura's stomach dropped. She could pick out every raindrop in a storm, but she couldn't tell when Haku was moving from mirror to mirror. Even Neji couldn't tell. Sasuke had been the only one to notice.

That meant that Tenten wouldn't have a chance. She couldn't possibly counter the jutsu.

"Does he have to leave the mirror to attack?" she said, the coldness in her voice shocking her, and Sasuke nodded.

"He does," he said. "And he's not going to be able to take down Tenten with needles alone."

Sakura looked back and found that Sasuke was right. While she'd been distracted, Tenten had been doggedly destroying more and more mirrors, ignoring the countless needles riddling her body. But she was starting to slow down, and blood was coating her body, running in small streams from the hundreds of pinpricks covering her. Sakura felt her heart tear, watching her friend struggle to even breathe.

It was just an endurance match now. A jutsu like that had to eat up a tremendous amount of chakra. Would Tenten's body give out first, or Haku's energy?

Haku burst out of one of the mirrors behind Tenten. There were only seven left now, and Tenten turned, at the sound or at some sixth sense Sakura could not know. She was too slow: Haku flashed past her, not slowing down as he jammed a brace of needles through Tenten's throat.

Incredibly, Tenten twisted at the last second, her eyes burning with fury, and the needles that would have paralyzed her simply punched straight through the muscle of her neck. She gagged on her own blood but kept turning, kept swinging her glaive with blind anger, and snipped off a lock of Haku's long hair as he cleared her range and dove back into a mirror.

' _Stop it.'_

Sakura's hands curled around the railing, her fingers making shallow imprints in the steel. She wanted to leap in between them, to bring the fight to an end by any means.

But she was just one girl in an arena filled with thousands of men and women baying for blood, and even a silent prayer was completely drowned out by that noise.

The end came as suddenly as the match had started. Haku charged again, both hands filled with needles. Tenten spun drunkenly, staggering from blood loss, and the glaive slipped from her hand as she brought it up behind her head to smash it down on top of her opponent.

But as ever, the girl possessed two things: too much determination for her own good, and surprising speed.

As Haku plunged in, committing to the attack, there was a flash of smoke and a tanto appeared in Tenten's raised hand. Fingers that had once been limp clenched so tight that blood leaked from their nails at the touch of the weapon. Tenten snarled and swung the blade down like a steel thunderbolt as Haku stabbed forward with both hands, driving needles up to his knuckles into Tenten's lungs.

In that moment, Sakura perceived the entire world of shinobi, cast in miniature, reflected through her two friends. Two people so focused on bringing the other down that they gladly stepped into what could be fatal attacks.

Tenten staggered back and fell, wheezing, unable to breathe. She collapsed on her side and flopped like a fish out of water.

' _Killing someone is a terrible crime.'_

Haku gasped, and his shirt tore open, completely split by Tenten's strike. There was a long cut running from just above his clavicle to just below his belly button; blood poured out of him, and he collapsed to one knee, pressing a hand to the wound.

The audience took a breath, and Haku pushed himself to his feet, the huge but shallow wound bleeding more sluggishly. Tenten's sword hadn't been long enough; it hadn't cut deep enough to take him down.

Sakura didn't know why she felt both elated and sick.

"Enough!" Shikaku called, appearing between them. "Enough! The match is decided! Haku is the winner!"

The crowd roared, and Haku weakly waved. He staggered forward, and Shikaku held out an arm, blocking his path and cocking an eyebrow.

"I have to remove them," Haku said, blood pouring down his chest. "She'll suffocate." Sakura felt like she would as well. Breathing was getting more and more difficult.

Because they'd almost killed each other, or because her fight was next?

Shikaku nodded, and he and Haku approached Tenten together. Haku bent down, and Sakura saw Shikaku's shadow dance, just on the edge of melding with Haku's.

The proctor didn't trust him at all, she thought. He was ready to paralyze Haku then and there, in the middle of the arena.

Haku gingerly plucked the needles he'd sunk into Tenten's chest out one by one, and when the fifth one was removed Tenten gasped and coughed up blood.

"Sorry." The boy from Rain winced. "Sorry. Hold your breath until they're all out."

Tenten did, and Haku finished removing the rest of the needles. After he was done, she coughed up another glob of blood, staining her lips. Haku stood up, and offered Tenten his hand.

"A good fight," he said, "as much as one can be." Then he wobbled on his feet, almost collapsing backward before Shikaku pressed his hand against his back.

"Medics," he declared flatly. "Both of you."

Both fighters were escorted off the field as the crowd rumbled in excitement. The end was coming.

"Sakura," Sasuke said, and Sakura jerked, realizing she'd been staring at the needles Haku had discarded in the arena. "You're up. You ready?"

"You ready?" Naruto echoed, and Sakura took a deep breath, trying to find herself.

"Guess I'll find out," she said, hoping to sound witty or brave. It came out as a whisper.

"You'll be fine," Naruto said, and then he blushed and gave her a quick hug. "Stay safe."

She turned and left the observation room.

Fly or die, Sakura, she thought. God, that's too melodramatic, isn't it? She mindlessly descended the stairs towards the arena, mind whirling through progressively dumber metaphors. Butterfly? Butterflies were cute. But that meant she was a caterpillar right now…

She was muttering to herself, she realized. Sakura giggled. If anyone ran into her right now they'd think she'd cracked. She could still give up, right? She'd told Obito and everyone else she'd fight, but they'd understand. They'd understand surrendering to those empty eyes, right?

"Sakura?"

Sakura blinked, returning to reality. She'd run right into Tenten and Haku, both being carried through the hall on their own stretchers. Tenten sat up and grinned at her, her arm still crippled; Haku just gave her a laconic wave, breathing shallowly.

"You guys…" Sakura felt herself tear up.

"Oh come on," Tenten grimaced. "This is nothing, you big baby."

"It was our choice," Haku said with a laugh, before letting out a painful sounding hack. "She was an incredible opponent."

"Right back atcha, pretty boy," Tenten said. The medical ninja carrying her stretcher rolled her eyes and made to continue on down the hall, and Tenten weakly kicked her in the back.

"Hey!" she protested. "Give me a minute, would you?!"

"You're literally filled with needles," she pointed out, and Tenten blew a raspberry. The older ninja shook her head. "Kids…"

"Sakura," Tenten said, ignoring the comment and pinning Sakura with her fiery brown eyes. "If we'd been trying to kill each other, we both would have died." She coughed, and Haku nodded. "Do you understand what I mean?"

"Not really," Sakura admitted, rooted in place. "That's a creepy thing to say." She wasn't shaking anymore; she felt a dreadful calm creeping over her.

"Gaara is not going to be the same," Haku said, and Tenten smirked.

"So if you're going to fight," she said, baring her bloody teeth, "fight to kill. Keep yourself safe, but if you're going to hit back, throw it like it's going to be your last attack. You get me?"

"I-"

" _You get me_?"

"I get you," Sakura said, her voice hoarse, and the medical ninja finally lost patience and began carrying both of their patients away.

"You picked up a sword, Sakura," Haku said as he was carried past her, and Sakura turned to watch them leave. "You know what that means."

"What're you doing, trying to get the last word?!" Tenten demanded, and Haku snorted as they turned the corner and vanished. "Kick his fucking ass, Sakura!"

Sakura stood in the hallway alone, trying to digest what had been said to her, and eventually turned and continued towards the arena. The hall grew brighter and brighter, sunlight and sound pouring in. Eventually, she reached the exit.

The crowd was rumbling, anticipation audibly rising by the second. Sakura stood on the precipice, her last chance to turn back without public humiliation.

On the other side of the arena, she saw Gaara appear from the darkness of his own hallway, plodding into the arena, not looking at anything or anyone. The crowd's noise rose as he approached the center, awaiting Sakura's entrance.

She took one step, and then another.

' _I gotta get stronger.'_

' _We just don't want you getting hurt.'_

Another. She was in the sun now, carried forward by something intangible.

Gaara shifted, glancing at her.

' _Sometimes, there are fights you can't win.'_

' _I guess I'll just kill all of you.'_

' _If you step foot in the arena with Gaara, he will kill you.'_

Sakura's hand wandered down and came to rest at the top of her sword's sheath.

' _You're smart, Sakura.'_

' _You're an honest and kind person, Sakura.'_

' _She's a natural.'_

Sakura closed her eyes, feeling her sword and all the chakra she had poured into it.

' _I know you're scared.'_

' _Trust yourself.'_

When she opened her eyes, she and Gaara were ten meters apart. Farther than the other combatants had been, but Shikaku seemed to want it that way. He raised a hand, and brought her to a stop.

"Ready?" he asked, and Sakura nodded. He looked to Gaara, and the Sand ninja grunted.

"Then, let the final match of the Chunin Exam begin!" He raised his hand and jumped back. The fight began. Sakura's foot slid back unconsciously, preparing for anything, and Gaara…

Sat down.

Sakura flinched, because she had no idea what else to do.

Thirty seconds passed, and the crowd grew restless. Sakura felt she had no choice but to speak

"What are you doing?" she asked, and Gaara closed his eyes.

"If you want to die, come," he said, each word containing more boredom than Sakura had ever felt in her life. "But you will not give me any meaning."

He only cared about Naruto. The shock of the realization ran from the top of Sakura's head down to her toes. He didn't even want to fight her. She almost giggled.

She could-

"You couldn't touch me," Gaara muttered. "You're not strong enough to be worth killing."

Sakura twitched.

Play it safe.

Stay at a distance.

He's stronger than you. He took on two teams at once without a scratch. He killed that team from Stone. Smashed them to paste. He's crazy. He will kill you. There's no shame in surrender.

He's just here for an easy pass. Let him be on his way. Try again next year. You just got unlucky, Sakura.

' _I'm sick of being scared.'_

Sakura twitched again, grit her teeth, and her anger burned the world away.

She unsheathed her sword, a single fluid motion, and a shimmering trail of water followed it out of the sheath, rotating around it and rapidly picking up speed until it was tearing through the air with thousands of hungry teeth.

' _You couldn't touch me.'_

Gaara opened one eye, glancing up at her. Sakura heard a hiss, and was shocked to find it was coming from her.

" _Watch me."_


	24. The Exam Concludes

Worth Killing

"Uh, Sasuke?" Naruto nudged his friend as Sakura began stalking around Gaara, moving in a steady clockwise motion. "Did she say-?"

"Yeah," Sasuke nodded, his Sharingan active and staring at the two ninja below. Naruto looked back, painfully aware of his heart thumping in his chest. Sakura looked in control; her footwork was perfect, and her long pink hair flowed behind her as she circled her opponent, her watery sword following her like a snake in the dirt.

But, uh…

"You think she snapped?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke nodded again.

"Yeah, maybe," he said. He leaned forward. "But she's not freaking out… I think she's just really mad."

Sakura snarled and flicked with her sword, cracking the water like a whip, and someone in the audience above whooped. Gaara still wouldn't move, or even open his eyes. She was trying to bait him out, and he wasn't falling for it.

"Yeah." Naruto swallowed. Sakura's face was twisted up, her eyes wide, her teeth bared. "She uh… she seems pretty mad." The face should have been scary or weird, but for some reason, Naruto could only think that she looked really cool.

Sakura had always had an air of hesitation and sadness to her, from the very first day they'd met. She never seemed certain about anything, and she had always been a little scared of everything, even him and Sasuke and Obito. Scared that she didn't belong, or that they didn't like her, or some crap like that. Naruto had thought that was a little stupid, but his mom had told him it made sense. And he guessed it did, but he'd never been able to wrap his head around it.

But that didn't matter, because right now, Sakura looked completely sure of herself. There wasn't a lick of hesitation in the way she walked or held her sword; she was one-hundred percent ready to tear Gaara apart.

She looked cool, and prettier than usual. Naruto smiled, leaning forward. At his side, Sasuke gave him an amused look.

"What?" Naruto asked. "What're you looking at?"

"Some dumbass," Sasuke laughed, and Naruto went red with anger and a bit of embarrassment. "Let's hope those seals of yours hold up."

"Hey, I don't wanna brag," Naruto said as Sakura completed the first half of her rotation around Gaara, now at his back. "But those seals are the most badass thing I've ever done."

Sakura did the most ninja thing she could have under the circumstances and chose that moment to attack. If she'd thrown a sword strike that could cut down a tree at anyone else's back while they were sitting down with their eyes closed, Naruto might have been pretty concerned for Sakura's state of mind.

But since it was Gaara, he found himself hoping with all his heart that the hit would land.

' _I'm probably meant to kill you, right?'_

Sakura's water sword struck out, covering the twenty feet between her and Gaara in an instant, and a thick wall of sand surged out of his gourd. It interspersed itself between Gaara and the blade, and the water smashed into it with a tremendous _crack_. The sand bent, chunks of grain flying apart and compromising the wall, and Sakura's blade rebounded, leaving behind some of its mass.

Gaara didn't twitch, completely trusting his sand to protect him. Did he even control it himself? Naruto's hand curled into a fist.

But Sakura didn't hesitate, didn't even pause to breathe. Before the recoil from the strike had even reached her, she was swinging again, taking hold of the blade with both hands. The water twisted like a living thing, slamming itself back into the weakened wall, and Gaara's eyes opened. The sword broke through the spot it had struck before, crashing through the sand with a loud smack.

Gaara ducked, and the blade whipped right over his head. The boy from Sand looked back over his shoulder, eyes wide, and Naruto heard Sakura snort.

She pulled her arm back, sheathing the sword for a moment, and Naruto's seals went to work. The water still attached to the blade was rapidly sucked back into the sheathe and replaced by more pushed out of the storage formulas lining the inside. When Sakura's sword emerged a moment later, it was impossible to tell that a third of the extended blade had been left behind when it had shattered Gaara's wall.

It had been hard to work with such a small surface, and to create the whole array in just a week, but Naruto had never questioned it when Obito had asked him for his help. If it was for one of his teammates, he'd do whatever it took to help them win.

(and he'd asked his mom for help as well, but Sasuke in particular didn't need to know that.)

Gaara crossed his arms, and more sand poured out of his gourd, forming a circle around him. He still wasn't standing up.

"Did you even know the name of those ninja you killed?" Sakura asked, and then she swung again, grunting with effort. Her blade whipped out, but she wasn't aiming for Gaara directly; his sand came up to protect him, this time guided by his will. Naruto was sure of it, because Sakura's blade went over him by a couple feet, and the sand didn't move up to block it. She swung again, the blade whickered close to the ground, under the sand that had gone up. "The team from Stone?"

"No," Gaara said. He rose to his feet as Sakura continued to lazily whip her sword back and forth, the water blade dancing in a hypnotizing pattern just beyond the range of the sand. "I did not." He was showing interest, Naruto thought. Was that good or bad?

Bad, he decided after a moment. Definitely bad.

"Why did you kill people whose names you didn't even know?" Sakura asked, and the blade struck out, slapping against the sand. It wasn't a full power strike, Naruto thought. Sakura's voice was cold, and she was controlling the water blade like an extra long, super flexible arm. She was in total control of herself, and testing the limits of Gaara's defense.

He grinned.

"I wanted to," Gaara said, and he smiled softly. He looked up into the stands. "I know what you're going to ask. I'm not stupid. Why I wouldn't want to kill you too."

Naruto realized who Gaara was looking for when he locked eyes with him, and he snarled down at the boy from Sand.

"I'm not interested in you," Gaara said. "The one-"

"Sure," Sakura hissed, and stepped forward into her next strike. Her blade hissed through the air, and Gaara's sand came up to block it, far more than before.

Naruto winced, expecting the crack of water on sand again, but instead Sakura grunted, twisting her whole body, and the water spun past the wall of sand, forming into a long sickle. The blade grew thin, stretched to its breaking point: Gaara glanced at it. He had time to take a single step back before it lunged for him, the tip slamming directly into his chest.

Gaara tumbled backwards, and for just a second the whole stadium was dead silent.

He landed on his butt and sat there, stunned. The boy had gone through the whole Forest of Death without getting touched, had trounced Team Eight and Ten in seconds, and Sakura had knocked him on his ass. It had been a weak hit, a fraction of the force her blade could normally bring to bear because of the awkward angle stretching her chakra to its limit.

But it had been a hit.

"You'll happily murder someone who you don't know because you're bored, but because your dad told you you couldn't kill Naruto, you're just going to sit and pout for me," Sakura spat. "You _scumbag._ "

Gaara slowly stood up, a grin spreading over his face.

' _Sakura, what are you doing?'_ Naruto shifted.

"Okay." He laughed, the sound escalating, growing more and more high pitched. Gaara's hands spread like claws, and sand began pouring out of his gourd, an impossible amount. "Okay. _Now_ I'll kill you."

###

Sasuke wasn't sure if Sakura was making a mistake or not.

He was sure he wasn't comfortable, regardless.

Gaara attacked, hundreds of pounds of sand surging out from him and towards Sakura, and Sakura retreated, striking at the sand with her blade as she steadily gave ground. Gaara advanced, never faster than a casual stride, but Sasuke could see the potential for enormous speed in him.

His eyes could see a lot more than the rest of the audience could. Everyone else was only seeing the clash of water and sand, one combatant retreating and the other pursuing. The crowd was going insane, the noise only providing more distractions from the actual fight.

The Sharingan showed him more. To Sasuke, it was clear that Sakura wasn't just retreating; her chakra was only growing sharper and sharper, compressed into a star of fury that burned out of her heart and flared every time she attacked. She was swinging her sword once a second, like clockwork, twisting her whole body with each strike and throwing her all into every one. None of the hits were feints: despite her fancy footwork, every single slash was clearly meant to strike Gaara down.

Gaara was advancing and his chakra was exploding, pouring out of him constantly. It was such a tremendous amount that Sasuke thought he surely had to drop any second, but he wasn't showing any fatigue at all. The ninja from Sand had incredible stamina, to burn that much chakra on defense and walk forward without a single sign of it. His sand darted to and fro like it had a will of its own, smashing down Sakura's attacks time and time again.

But Sakura was just growing more ferocious, every attack angrier than the last, and after ten seconds of retreating and ten deflected attacks she planted her feet and sheathed her sword in a lightning motion. The sun at her heart burst, doubling in intensity, and Sasuke watched with fascination as her sword began glowing so bright with her chakra that he could see it through her sheath with his Sharingan.

For the first time, Sakura spoke the name of her new jutsu, using it as a heartfelt kiai.

" _Ryusuiken_!"

She unsheathed and swung the sword in the same motion, her body low and flowing with the strike like she was water herself. The blade snapped out, twice as thick as before, and Gaara's sand rose to meet it.

Sakura made a ram handsign while maintaining her grip on the sword, grunting with effort a heartbeat before impact, and the water became hard as steel. Sasuke couldn't look away; the amount of control she was exerting, sending her energy from her core, down her arm, through the sword and into the water itself, was hard to fathom. It was like an extension of the Rasengan; the water was spinning like a saw, helping keep it together.

The technique, Sasuke thought with a grin, was terrifying. He'd known that the second he'd seen it in the training ground, but it was something else to see it brought to bear against someone like Gaara.

The steel-strong water, spinning violently and whipping through the air so fast that it produced a small sonic boom, cut right through the shield of sand Gaara had raised. The boy didn't even have time to look surprised. The water blade slammed right into his chest.

Sasuke had honestly expected the attack to cut Gaara in half, or at least tear his torso open. But instead, he was sent flying backwards like before. There wasn't any blood. Just more sand.

"What?" Naruto asked, leaning so far forward he was liable to fall over the railing. Sasuke put his hand on his shoulder, keeping him back. "What?!"

Gaara refused to tumble and stayed on his feet, sliding backwards like a heavy statue. The boy's head snapped up with a mad smile, and Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"His whole body is covered in sand," he said. Now that he could see the damage, the rest was obvious. "Like armor, an inch or two thick. It's coating him."

Incredibly hard and dense sand too, if it could stand up to that strike and only crack. Sakura's attack could have cut through a concrete block, but Gaara was just winded. He had two layers of incredible defenses.

"Better~!" Gaara called out, and Sasuke saw Sakura bristle at the word. She started to step forward, and Sasuke shouted.

"Sakura-!"

"No." Sasuke's mouth froze, the words trapped in his throat, and he found the rest of his body was similarly paralyzed. A second later, the paralysis vanished: he spun around and found Shikaku Nara standing there with a grim expression.

"Assistance is against the rules," the proctor said. "She has to stand on her own." He stepped forward with a dour glare. "Unless you'd like to disqualify her."

Sasuke frowned. "She needs-"

"She'll figure it out," Shikaku said. "And if she doesn't, I'll keep her from dying." He had nothing more to say, and disappeared back to whatever shadow he'd crawled out of.

"Jerk," Naruto muttered, and Sasuke suppressed a growl. He looked back to the fight. Sakura and Gaara were maintaining their detente about twenty five feet apart. For the first time since the fight had started, Sakura didn't look sure of herself. She stood in a low posture, her blade extended before her, eyes narrowed.

She looked up, past Gaara and at them. At him and Naruto. Sasuke nudged his friend, and they both locked eyes with Sakura.

There wasn't anything to say. They both just nodded; Naruto smiled, and gave a thumbs-up. A smile flitted across Sakura's face, and then her eyes went hard.

She sheathed her sword, storing all her water once more, and kept one hand on the blade's hilt. The other, she kept free, loose and ready at her side.

Then, she started walking forward.

"Uh…" Naruto muttered, and then Gaara's sand came up, dancing like dozens of wispy snakes as Sakura slowly but surely advanced directly into it. " _Uhhhh_."

"She knows what she's doing," Sasuke said, watching Sakura knead more and more chakra in her core and steadily amass it in both her legs, her right hand, and her sword. She picked up her pace, approaching Gaara with small quick movements, always ready to evade in any direction.

' _I think,'_ he amended. Naruto was already twitching with sympathetic adrenaline; he didn't need to know just how fast Sakura's heart was beating, while Gaara's was as steady as a metronome.

Gaara raised one hand, and his sand attacked in a vicious wave. He wasn't trying to be clever, just to crush Sakura with a single attack. She didn't let him, darting sideways around the sand. She was fast: much faster than she'd been even a month ago. Obito training her chakra control so stringently had increased her speed, even if she hadn't done nearly as much physical training.

However, that speed just put her on par with the sand. It was enough to keep her out of danger, but the closer she got to Gaara, the less margin for error she had.

And yet, that was exactly what she was doing. Sasuke leaned back, crossing his arms.

"Why's she getting so close?" Naruto asked as Sakura pressed in, avoiding more and more sand every second. Gaara refused to back up; he just conducted his sand with more energy, tossing it around like a mallet and trying to crush their teammate.

"The armor," Sasuke said. His eyes burned; they'd been burning since his fight with Naruto, when everything had become so clear. "She wants to break through it. Her jutsu gets weaker with range."

"So… she's going to hit him point blank?" Naruto blinked and looked back. There was only fifteen feet between Gaara and Sakura now: she dove forward over a swell of sand, her feet just barely clearing it. Her right hand never left her sword's hilt. "

"Looks like," Sasuke muttered, trying to slow his heart down. She'd be fine. Shikaku had promised.

But still…

Gaara was smiling. All teeth, eyes wide. He looked like a wild animal.

Ten feet now.

"C'mon," Sasuke said under his breath, and Naruto nodded in silent agreement. "Just hit him, Sakura."

With seven feet left, Sakura was snagged by the sand. It wrapped around her ankle crawling up her leg and stopping her dead in her tracks as she leapt to the left. Gaara's face split open in a smile, but before she could be crushed, Sakura lashed out with her blade and severed the sand. Then, she jumped. As she did, she sheathed the blade once more.

The sand still on her leg didn't fall away; it constricted, and Sasuke saw in unfortunate detail how Sakura's foot deformed as her ankle shattered. Spikes of sand pushed into her skin, soaking the grains in blood. But Sakura didn't scream: she just closed her eyes and drew her sword again.

Gaara gestured one more time, sending another wave of sand up at her. Sakura was about six feet in the air, five feet away from Gaara. The sand would envelope her in less than a second. Sakura cocked her sword back, up and behind her shoulder, preparing for a huge thrust. The water around it rotated faster, like a drill, so fast even Sasuke could barely distinguish the motion.

Sakura thrust at a downward diagonal angle, directly at Gaara, and for the first time ever the boy showed something like wariness. He started to jump back: his sand spread out in a huge shield, wide and deep and separating him and Sakura like a canvas that was harder than steel.

Sakura spoke. Maybe it was just so quiet that Sasuke couldn't hear it, or maybe she didn't bother to vocalize at all, but Sasuke had to read her lips to understand her.

_Ryusuiso._

The water exploded off her blade in a thin spear, compressed beyond all reason and spinning so violently that it immediately began shedding mass. It was like a bolt of blue lightning, and it pierced right through Gaara's sand shield as if it wasn't there. Sakura had aimed for Gaara's chest, but the boy had evaded the blow thanks to his instincts.

That meant that instead of cutting out his heart, Sakura's water spear shot right through Gaara's side, leaving a hole the size of a grown man's thumb.

There was an audible gasp in the audience; Sakura flew over Gaara's head, his sand not reaching for her, and landed behind him, tumbling to her knees as her broken ankle gave out. The sand on her leg fell away in bloody clumps. She glared over her shoulder, burning green eyes framed by pink hair, as he collapsed to one knee, mouth opening and closing soundlessly.

"Aahhh…" A gasp escaped him, and Sakura dragged herself up, sheathing her sword again. All the water she'd used for the spear had fallen out of her control the moment it had landed; that jutsu had been too much for even her impossible chakra control. Gaara looked back at her, his mouth opening wider, his eyes bloodshot. Sand was crumbling off the hole in his side, his armor mixing with his blood. " _Aaaaaahhhhhhhh_ -!"

"Not worth killing, huh?!" she screamed back, and swung again. Gaara fell back, his sand coming up to a degree Sasuke had never seen before to shield him from the strike. Sakura was relentless, swinging again and again, twice, three times a second, and her brutal attacks eventually pierced through the sand, falling on Gaara's back and shoulders and further cracking his armor. The boy from Sand curled up in the fetal position as Sakura screamed and beat on him, her blade producing a bloodcurdling _crack_ every time it rebounded off his armor. "You were right, you piece of shit! _You're the only one worth killing around here_!"

Sakura slipped on her broken ankle, her form failing, and she collapsed to one side, swinging even as she went down. Gaaara took the half-second respite and sand began piling on top of him, more and more until his form was completely obscured, and then more after that. Sakura kept attacking, but the sand formed into a pyramid, and then a dome. Gaara was gone: where he'd lain, there was just an orb of impregnable sand.

"Okay, that's gotta be a forfeit, right?" Naruto said, and Sasuke shook his head.

"It's a defensive technique," he said. "If Sakura can't break through…"

"Oh," Naruto said, looking back at the orb. Sakura was still probing at it with her sword, but it was becoming obvious she couldn't penetrate it. It was just too thick: any scratches she made repaired immediately.

"Crap."

###

After nearly a minute of swinging at the dome without any effect, the haze of red receded, and Sakura found herself taking stock of the situation.

She was low on chakra, feeling the all-too familiar exhaustion creeping in. Her ankle was killing her, constantly radiating pain up through her leg and making her heart skip a beat every couple seconds. Her sword was getting heavier and heavier.

And yet, all she could think about doing was to keep on attacking. Keep swinging, until Gaara couldn't get back up, couldn't protect himself. She glared at the dome of sand.

Gaara was bleeding in there. She'd pierced his side. He'd screamed; he wasn't used to getting injured. He was used to bullying people. Killing them. Not to them fighting back, hurting them. Had he even bled before?

If she waited, he'd have to come out. She could kill him, like Tenten had said. She was sure of it. But if she waited, she might drop first. She was already so tired.

' _There are some fights you can't win.'_

Sakura snarled, her fists clenching. She looked around, keeping her eyes on the orb but searching for something else.

"Hey!" she called, and she felt and watched the audience shift at her call. "Proctor!"

"Yes?" Shikaku asked from behind her, and Sakura resisted the urge to jump. She glanced back over her shoulder, letting her sword fall limp.

"Does he have to come out of there?" she asked, and Shikaku shook his head.

"There are no time limits," he said, and Sakura bit her lip, feeling her head grow clearer as the reality of the situation became apparent. Gaara wasn't an idiot, just murderous. He had to know that if Sakura couldn't reach him, she'd tire herself out trying. He was just going to sit in there until she dropped, and then he'd come out and kill her. It's what she would do, in his position.

"Then… I'm done," she said, and the Nara cocked an eyebrow.

"You're forfeiting?" he said, and Sakura grimaced.

"If you want to call it that. I'm done. I can't reach him in there." Sakura looked back, and despite the situation, she smiled. "I proved my point."

Shikaku laughed. "Without a doubt," he grinned, and raised his hand. Sakura steeled herself, ready for a feeling of shame or disgust, but nothing came.

She'd given it her all. She'd made Gaara bleed. She had nothing to be ashamed of. That thought kept her standing tall and proud as Shikaku declared her the loser.

The crowd screamed, cheered, boo'd, laughed; Sakura ignored all of it, the cries for and against her, and sheathed her sword, limping for the exit. She looked for Naruto and Sasuke, and found them in the spectator box; Naruto was grinning at her, and Sasuke just nodded. They both thought she'd done the right thing.

Sakura smiled back at them.

"Nooooooooooo…"

Sakura stopped; the voice was just a whisper, but she turned around nonetheless. It was coming from the dome; there was a small hole in it, like an eye peering at her. She perceived something golden inside, like a gleaming cross.

Something too heavy to believe slammed down on Sakura's shoulders, an invisible force that sent every hair on her body standing on end. She retched; _malice_ itself wrapped its hands around her heart and squeezed, and Sakura was suddenly paralyzed. A part of her so primitive that it didn't have words started screaming, but on the outside, she was dead silent. She could not speak: she could barely breathe.

" _Nooooooooooo_ …" The whisper came again. It was coming from where Gaara had been, but it sounded nothing like him. " _You don't get to just_ _ **leave**_ _."_

Something exploded out of the hole.

At the very beginning of the match, fresh and angry, Sakura could have dodged it. But right now, she was slipping into exhaustion, her anger was replaced by satisfaction, and she had a broken ankle.

She saw a blur as Shikaku tried to intersperse himself between her and the thing coming out of the dome, but it wasn't enough. On pure instinct, Sakura brought up her sword, raising it in her right hand in a vain attempt to block the attack she couldn't even see.

Something, a huge hand made of sand, slammed into her with a sonic boom. It crushed her arm against her chest, and Sakura felt blood hit the back of her teeth. Her sword flew out of her hand.

' _I let go of my sword,'_ she thought as she was thrown backwards. _'Shit, Tenten's gonna kill me.'_

She hit the wall of the arena, and everything went fuzzy and black.

Sakura was aware of hitting the ground next, and after that, very little made sense. There was screaming all around her, and a roaring too, a sound that shook her like an earthquake. The ground shook, convulsing under her, and her leg and arm were on fire. She wished they would just fall off, they hurt so much.

She rolled over, looking up at the blue sky as a rolling darkness overtook her vision.

Oh, hey. Her sword was stuck in the wall of the arena. Neato.

There was more screaming, more roaring, more shaking, like an endless nightmare. The dreadful hateful heavy chakra pressed down on her like a building, crushing her into the earth. The earth had teeth, tearing at her back. Someone was screaming her name. Maybe it was Naruto.

The darkness drowned out everything, and Sakura passed out.


	25. Aftermath

Sakura Haruno

Sakura woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling.

She tried to sit up, and her leg and arm immediately told her that was a terrible idea. Her back ached, itching all over. Sakura followed their screamed instructions and lay back down. She settled for looking around instead, trying to figure out where she was.

Hospital, she realized after a moment. She was definitely in a hospital. The central hospital, if her window was any indication. It was getting dark outside. Sakura blinked. Had she been unconscious for that long? Her sword was nowhere to be seen. There was an IV in her left arm.

"Guh," she said, her mouth too dry to speak. She licked her lips and tried again. "Hello?"

"Sakura?!" Naruto busted the door down and beamed at her. "You're okay!"

"Naruto?" Sakura blinked. "Were you just… waiting outside?"

"I was waiting inside but Obito-sensei made me leave," Naruto pouted, coming to her bedside. "He said I was being creepy."

"Umm…" Sakura said, not sure what else to say. "Okay. What… what happened?"

"Oh." Naruto's face fell a little. "Uh, well, so-"

"You missed all the excitement, Sakura." Obito materialized in the corner of the room, and Naruto stomped his foot.

"How do you _do_ that?" he asked, and Obito tapped his ear. There was a radio there, nestled underneath his hair.

"You're loud, Naruto," he said with a grin. "I asked to be told as soon as Sakura woke up. I knew you'd be the perfect alarm."

As Naruto pouted, Sakura looked to her sensei for answers.

"First off, Sakura," he said, stepping forward. "Amazing fight. Incredible. You did better than anyone could have dreamed."

"But?" Sakura said, sensing the unspoken word. Obito sighed, his grin growing a little sour.

"You couldn't have known, but you went a _little_ overboard." He sighed. "The Kazekage didn't tell us about what Gaara's reaction would be to getting injured. He probably just didn't expect it…"

"Sensei, what happened?" Sakura asked, trying to lift her head again and failing. "What hit me? What was that…" The memory hit her like a hammer, and she shook. "That roar?"

"This is gonna be need to know, alright?" Obito said, and both Sakura and Naruto nodded. "Doesn't leave this room." He snorted. "Not that plenty don't know now anyway."

"Gaara is a Jinchuriki," he said, and suddenly very many things made sense to Sakura.

"Like mom?" Naruto blurted out, and Sakura jerked her head towards him, her arm screaming in pain. He gave her a look that clearly said "whoops."

"Sorry," he said, and Obito shook his head.

"Like Kushina," he said, and Sakura lay back, trying to digest two incredible pieces of information at once.

She knew what a Jinchuriki was, in theory. Someone with one of the Bijuu, or any other sort of demon, sealed inside of them. Either to contain the power, or harness it for themselves. All the villages had them; how many, and what demons exactly, was a secret kept religiously by each of them.

But if Gaara was one, and Kushina too…

' _Is that why Naruto has those whiskers?'_

"That was what happened at the end, then?" Sakura asked, and Obito nodded.

"Gaara is the sort of Jinchuriki created to use a Bijuu's power," Obito said. "His seal lets out the Beast's chakra if he's stressed, or angry." He scratched his chin. "Or at least, that's our assumption. The Kazekage isn't exactly sharing, even if we are allies."

"So when I stabbed him, the Tailed Beast came out?" Sakura asked. "I didn't…"

"Not your fault," Obito said. "Don't worry. It wasn't the whole thing. Gaara transformed into some kind of… hybrid."

"He was a real freak," Naruto finally spoke up. "He turned into a monster. Half sand-" he drew a line down the middle of his body, "and half him. Sasuke and I grabbed you; the Kazekage and my dad went after him."

"They subdued Gaara before he could do too much damage," Obito said. "But that happening in front of the whole audience, _that_ damage was already done." He looked out the window with a thoughtful air. "Now all the villages will know Sand has a faulty weapon. You probably made an enemy of the Kazekage for that alone, Sakura."

Sakura blinked, and Obito blinked back. "Sorry. That was a little too frank."

"No, that's, uh…" Sakura felt faint. She'd just wanted to prove a point, not cause an international incident. It had just been a fight for her. "That's good to know." She looked down at her body under the sheets. "Am I okay?"

"Well, I'm sure you can tell your arm and leg are busted. Lacerations all over your back," Obito said with a grin. "Leg broken in multiple places. Compound fracture on your arm."

"Ugh, so gross," Naruto muttered, shaking his head. "Was coming right out your elbow." He got a thoughtful look. "I guess your elbow was coming right out your elbow…"

"Thanks, Naruto," Sakura said dryly, and Naruto blushed. She felt a little bad for her tone. "And thanks for saving me, too."

The blush intensified. "Someone else woulda if I hadn't," he said, rubbing the back of his head, and Sakura smiled.

_'But you were the one who did.'_

"So, this is gonna be your home for the next day or two," Obito said. "Get used to that bed."

That sounded fine to Sakura. Lying in bed for the next couple days would be beautiful, if she were being honest with herself.

"Okay." Sakura tried to catch her breath, trying to remember what was important. Now that the euphoria of waking up had passed, the pain in her limbs was growing unbearable. "Okay. Two things."

"Shoot," Obito said, and Sakura took a deep breath. Focus. You can sleep afterwards.

"One: where's my sword?" she asked, and Obito laughed.

"I've got it," he said. "You want me to bring it to you?"

"Would it be weird if I said yes?" Sakura asked, and Obito laughed again.

"Not at all," he said. "What's two?"

"Did I pass?" Sakura asked, and Obito frowned.

"Hasn't been determined yet," he said. "The judgements got delayed, for obvious reasons."

"Do you think I'll pass?" she asked, and Obito shrugged.

"Hard to say," he said.

"What?" Naruto protested. "But she kicked ass!" Sakura started to speak up, and he spun on her. "Shut up! You kicked ass! Why wouldn't you pass?"

"That's up to the judges," Obito said. "The three Kage, and the representative jonin from each Village. And it's not as simple as kicking ass, as you put it. There are other factors to consider." He crossed his arm, tapping a finger against his forearm. "We'll see."

Despite asking, Sakura found herself not really caring if she had passed. It was a distant concern. She was alive. She'd stood up to Gaara in front of the whole village, and made him bleed. Right now, that was more than enough for her.

"Alright," she said, laying back. Her head was fuzzy again; she was sure Obito had noticed. "That's okay…"

"Your arm hurting?" Obito asked, and Sakura laughed.

"My everything," she admitted, and Obito smiled at her.

"We're all really proud of you, Sakura," he said, and Naruto vigorously nodded. "I'll grab a medical ninja; get you something for the pain. Just take it easy, okay?"

Sakura nodded, and Naruto and Obito said their goodbyes and left. A medical ninja came a minute later, just as Obito had promised, and injected her IV with something that carried her away.

###

Sakura ended up only spending two more days in the hospital. She left early on the third day, her right arm and left leg in a cast, and with a crutch to help her walk.

Sasuke was with her when she left; Naruto and Obito were already at their destination. He'd come to take her to chunin determination. Sakura was happy to be out; she'd grown bored lying in bed as medical ninja fussed over her, making sure her bones had reconnected properly. Going from the most exciting day of her life to a couple of the most boring had left her seriously wired.

She'd had plenty of visitors to keep her from going mad. Her teammates had come by at least once a day, and so had her sensei. Ino and her team, and Hinata and hers, had both come by on separate days to offer their congratulations. Hinata had brought food, meat and salad, and Ino a book, some fiction about a ninja who fought with their hair. Sakura had been immensely grateful to them in different ways.

Tenten had shown up the day before; her team hadn't.

"You dumbass," Tenten had said, sitting at her bedside and trying to read the book over her shoulder. "You're lucky he didn't kill you."

" _He's_ lucky I didn't kill _him_ ," Sakura had grumbled, not sure if it was bravado or the truth, and Tenten had cracked a smile. She had been covered in small, circular bandages, each placed over a scabbed lump of raised skin; senbon exit wounds weren't pretty to look at, and neither was the inflammation they caused. Sakura hadn't even wanted to guess at what her friend's chest looked like.

"It was a hell of fight, you know," she'd said, her smile fading. "But Sakura…"

' _You might have taken it too far_ , _'_ Sakura remembered, as she stumped through the streets of Konoha, stubbornly keeping pace with Sasuke. She couldn't say Tenten had been wrong.

Everywhere she went, people were looking at her. Some of them were whispering.

That's her, the whispers went in a dozen different permutations. That's Sakura Haruno, the girl who went crazy during the Exam. Look at her hair, there's no mistaking it. She still has her sword, even though she's in a cast. That's a shinobi for you.

Some of the whispers were for the sake of admiration, others confusion, some concern. But no matter what they were expressing, they whispered, and Sakura felt eyes on her every step of the way to the Hokage's tower.

"Uh, Sasuke?" she asked, and he glanced over at her. "Why's everyone, um, know me?"

"You made a scene," Sasuke said, quietly amused. "People could hear the screaming across the whole village. You almost woke up a demon right in the middle of it, you know."

"Oh," Sakura muttered, feeling a blush creep over her cheeks. "I didn't…"

"Didn't Obito already do this with you?" Sasuke said, and Sakura nodded. "Then don't bother. There's nothing to be sorry for." He grinned, uncharacteristically earnest. "You made Naruto's day, kicking that guy's ass. Neither of us knew how advanced you'd gotten with your jutsu."

"I didn't really know either," Sakura admitted. "I mean, I knew how to use it, but never like that…" She laughed. "I was just so angry. I guess that might have helped. And I couldn't have done anything without Naruto's seals."

"He did a pretty good job," Sasuke said, and Sakura felt an immense well of gratitude towards him welling up inside her soul. Helping her forget the pain in her arm and leg, the stares, and the whispers… Sasuke had always been friendly, but he'd rarely reached out like this before.

The last shred of doubt that they were real teammates, real friends, evaporated at the back of her mind like a puddle simmering away in the midday sun, and Sakura barely noticed its departure.

They passed the rest of the journey to the Hokage's tower in companionable silence, Sakura learning to ignore the people who could not ignore her as best she could. It was strange, to suddenly be known. She remembered walking home from her training with Obito the day she'd told him she was giving up: no one had paid her any mind that day.

Maybe that anonymity would return with time. Sakura hoped so. The attention made her uncomfortable. When they reached the tower, Sasuke gave her a look out of the corner of his eye.

"Do you want help?" he asked, and Sakura grimaced. The Hokage's office was seven floors up; seven flights of narrow winding stairs that could be annoying to climb with two feet, let alone one. "I could… carry you."

Sakura stuck out her tongue, going a little red at the mental image, and Sasuke laughed. She wasn't sure she could handle that embarrassment.

"Just go slow," she asked, and her teammate grinned and nodded. "I'll keep up, promise."

They started ascending the tower, and Sasuke pulled ahead, occasionally looking back to watch her progress. Step by step, Sakura stumped up the tower. It was a delicate process: right leg forward, crutch under her left arm up, make sure footing was solid, bring level, repeat until you want to vomit.

This sucks, Sakura thought, and laughed at the clarity of the thought. How far were they now? Just the second floor? What the hell, it had definitely been more than that.

Her arm jostled, and she grit her teeth, trying not to imagine the bone punching back through her skin. It was set now; the pain just meant it was healing. She pulled herself up another step, feeling a drop of sweat run down her face. Sasuke gave her a concerned look, and she grinned back, hoping it didn't come out as shaky as she felt.

Halfway there.

' _Gaara couldn't finish you off, there's no way some stairs could.'_

She laughed at the thought, and immediately tripped on the last step of the fourth set of stairs.

"Ah _fu_ -" she started to say, and then Sasuke caught her with one hand, keeping her from slamming face first into the floor. A curious jonin stuck his head around the corner of the hall, and snorted at the sight of her. Sakura glared at him, and he pantomimed surrender and retreated back to whatever he'd been doing in his office.

"Okay," Sasuke smirked. "Good try, alright?" Then he hoisted her up in one hand, chakra keeping it stuck to her shoulder. "Let's do this instead."

Sakura gave up and nodded, and Sasuke ran them up the last three flights of stairs with surprising speed, pushing him ahead of him and being careful not to jostle or bump her against any of the walls. It was kinda relaxing, Sakura had to admit; being carried by him wasn't the worst thing in the world.

On the seventh flight, he deposited her on her feet, and Sakura sighed, leaning back onto her crutch. "Thanks, Sasuke," she said, and the boy shrugged.

"You'd do the same for me, right?" he asked, and then strode ahead without waiting for a response. Sakura followed him around the corner, and found Naruto and Obito waiting for her.

"Hey!" Naruto waved, and Sakura smiled back. She eyed Obito, and he answered her unspoken question.

"We're the last," Obito said. "Well, you guys are the last. The other teams have already been judged."

"We're getting judged as a team then?" Sasuke asked, and Obito nodded. "It's not pass-fail as a unit-"

"No, it's by individual," Obito clarified, crossing his arms. "None of the teams so far have been all one or the other."

"Who passed?" Sakura asked, feeling like she already knew the answers. If she had to guess, it would be-

"Tenten, Neji Hyuuga, Haku Yuki, Suigetsu Hozuki, and Temari of the Sand all passed," their sensei said, his eyes narrowing a little. Sakura nodded, pursing her lips and adjusting her crutch. She felt a thrill travel up from the bottom of her stomach. Tenten had passed, and so had Haku! It was more than she could have hoped for. Neji wasn't any surprise to her as well.

Poor Lee, she thought. Both his teammates had risen in rank and he was stuck as a genin, just because he'd had a bad match-up.

' _Like you.'_

Worrying for no reason. Sakura dispelled the thought, and marveled at the ease of it. Even if her arm and leg were shattered, she felt more confident than ever. Had it been that simple, or had stepping up to Gaara in a moment of anger broken something in her?

And if it was the latter… was that a bad thing?

"They're going to call you in in a moment," Obito said, and Naruto shifted. Obito caught the movement and grinned. "Hey. You all know how proud of you I am, right?"

"Yeah," Naruto grumbled. "We know."

"Cool, cause I'm not going to be talking you up everywhere I go," Obito laughed. "You've all made names for yourselves already; you're not going to need my help."

Before Sakura had time to ponder that, the door to the Kage's office opened, and Shikaku Nara stepped out. He had a freshly healed cut on his temple, a little thing that ran from just above his ear to his eyebrow.

"Ready," he declared, and one by one Team Seven filed into the room.

There were five other shinobi inside aside from Shikaku. The Hokage, Kazekage, and Amekage, who were sitting, drew the most attention. Sakura had seen the Hokage and Kazekage before, but Ame's, she'd only glimpsed from a distance. The woman, Konan, had a severe beauty. Her hair was blue and her eyes gold, and beneath her Kage hat there was an exquisite origami flower tucked in her hair. Her eyes tracked them, and Sakura in particular, as they entered the room. Sakura felt like she was being picked apart right there; she forced herself to make eye contact, and the woman's icy facade cracked, a minuscule smile creeping over her face.

The other two shinobi were jonin representatives from the other villages, like Obito had mentioned. Sand's was a stocky brown man; half his face was concealed by a soft white turban that hung down over it, and the other was marked with long red tattoos that ran over his cheeks. He had dark eyes, and they dismissed Naruto and Sasuke in just a moment. But like the Amekage's had, they lingered on Sakura.

Sakura didn't keep eye contact with him like she had the Kage: she caught a glimpse of deep disgust in them, and decided it would be better to look away.

The jonin from Rain was huge, over six feet tall, and incredibly muscular. He was wearing a sleeveless black vest that showed off his arms, and had bushy black hair that stuck up in all directions like a nest of blades. None of that drew Sakura attention though: it was his smile, which showed off his pointed teeth, jagged like a shark's, and the huge sword slung over his back. The blade was just as tall as him, with metal so black it refused to reflect light, and was shaped like a butcher's knife instead of a traditional sword. There was a neat hole cut in the top, and a semicircle carved out near the grip.

Shikaku joined the line-up, standing behind and to the left of the Hokage, mirroring the other jonin and their Kage.

"Team Seven," the Hokage said, and Naruto gave a jaunty wave while Sasuke and Sakura bowed. Clumsily, in Sakura's case. His father rolled his eyes. "Are you ready to receive your determinations?"

"'Course," Naruto said, and Sasuke nodded.

"I'm ready," Sakura said, trying to stay calm. It felt like everyone was staring at her again. That had to be her imagination. Why would three Kage be staring at her?

"Very well then," the Hokage said, and he extended a hand. All three of the Kage stood up from their chairs, joining their jonin on their feet.

"Naruto Namikaze," the Kazekage said, and Sakura wondered who had determined who would speak to who. The man sounded bored; it was like he didn't care that his son had almost turned into a demon and slaughtered her. If he really was her enemy now like her sensei had said, he was doing a good job of hiding it. "You showed admirable strength of character and expertise in your battle." He frowned. "However, you also showed a severe lack of judgement; in an uncontrolled environment, you would have exhausted yourself and died." He sat back down, crossing his legs. "There is more to being a chunin than making a crowd cheer," he said disdainfully, and Naruto's shoulders slumped, just a little.

Sakura understood, right in that second, that they would all be staying genin.

"Sasuke Uchiha," the Hokage said, and Sasuke pulled himself up straight. "You showed yourself adept in ninjutsu and taijutsu in your battle, and did your clan proud." He was expressionless. "Unfortunately, you showed a similar lack of judgement and recklessness with your final attack. By engaging Naruto on his own terms, you placed yourself in unacceptable danger; a chunin must not disregard safer options, for themselves or for the village, unless there is no other choice." He sat back down. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke didn't slump. He stayed upright, staring straight ahead. He'd been expecting this, Sakura thought. He was too smart not to have.

"Sakura Haruno." The Amekage had a voice as beautiful and severe as her appearance, and she regarded Sakura with a curious expression, looking over her casts and crutch with something that might be called amusement.

"You showed tremendous bravery and aptitude in the exam, and faced an opponent that held all the advantages. You also surrendered when it was safe to do so, instead of pushing yourself too far, and thus showed much sounder judgement than your teammates." The woman smiled. "However, you also chose to fight when there was no need. Gaara of the Desert had no interest in the match. Though it is in the nature of shinobi to fight, one of the most important duties for any ninja, and especially a chunin, is to be careful when picking those fights." She sat back down, the smile fading. "Just like the rest of your team, if you had been in an uncontrolled environment, you would have died. And others would have as well."

Others, Sakura thought. What would have happened if the Kage hadn't been there? Who else could have stopped a rampaging Tailed Beast?

"Because of these factors," the Hokage said, "we have determined that none of you are quite ready to be chunin. Your skills have developed; your attitudes have not." He shrugged. "That's all there is to it. You're dismissed."

Team Seven left in silence, and Obito waited until they were two floors down to say anything.

"Honesty can sting," he noted, and Sasuke chuckled.

"You don't disagree with anything they said, sensei?" he asked, and Obito gave him a cockeyed look.

"They were too soft on you guys, if anything," he said, and Sakura winced at the truth of it. "Naruto: you were too flashy. Sasuke: you were doing fine until the end. That Rasengan looked amazing, but it was dumb as hell. And Sakura…"

He sighed. "I told you I was proud of you for standing up to Gaara, but you let your anger control you. If you hadn't attacked first, the match probably would have been called in your favor because of his refusal to fight." He held up a hand before she could protest. "And if you'd waited for _him_ to attack, which he might have, it would have shown more maturity on your part. That's what they were looking for, and none of you guys showed enough."

"Stupid…" Naruto muttered. "Now we're gonna have to take the whole damn exam again."

"Hey, maybe you'll get lucky and get a battlefield promotion instead," Obito said dryly, and Naruto perked up. Their sensei coughed. "Don't look so excited: just be glad you can get promoted in a fancy tournament instead of a war, huh?"

"Fiiine," Naruto said, and Sakura watched as he shook off his disappointment in real time. She was surprised she wasn't feeling more herself, but if she were being honest with herself, she'd never expected to be promoted. Stabbing Gaara had been more than sufficient for her; anything else had been gravy.

"Well, what now, Obito-sensei?" she asked, and Obito raised an eyebrow. He pointed to her.

"Bedrest," he said, and Sakura groaned. She was sick of being bored. "You, I don't care," he said, pointing to Naruto, who stuck his tongue out at him. "And you… we've got some clan stuff to discuss," he said pointing to Sasuke last, who jerked in surprise. "Sakura, where you headed? I'll be happy to take you there."

Sakura considered. "Home, I guess," she eventually decided. At least she had more books at home. If she was going to be stuck in bed, her own would be preferable.

"Coming right up." Obito grabbed her shoulder, and that nauseating slippery feeling washed over Sakura. The Hokage's tower vanished, but Sakura's home didn't appear. Instead, they appeared somewhere else.

Sakura had only been here once before, the strange dimension that only Obito's eyes could access. It was an endless space of stone cubes, and she tried not to think about where it was or why it looked like it did. Where did the air in it come from? All the stones had their own barely visible luminosity, and they lent the space an eerie half-light.

"Sensei?" she asked, wondering why they had stopped halfway, and Obito turned towards her.

"Sorry," he said, not sounding it. "Sakura, I just wanted to ask… are you alright?"

"Huh?" Sakura gestured to her arm and leg, and shrugged. "As much as I can be."

"That's not what I meant," Obito said, and Sakura frowned. "You'll heal; I don't doubt that. I meant _you_."

"Sensei… I don't understand," Sakura said, not sure if she was being truthful.

"I told you you let your anger control you," he said, and Sakura's frown deepened. "I wasn't kidding about that. You did something incredible against Gaara, but you did it because you were furious. It made you take risks you wouldn't have otherwise."

"And what's wrong with that?" Sakura demanded. "He was a monster; I shouldn't get angry with those kinds of people?"

Her sensei sighed. "I'm not good with kids," he muttered, and Sakura scoffed. "Sakura, you gotta get what I'm saying, right? I was worried, watching you get that angry. I know Naruto and Sasuke were too."

"I was just angry, sensei," Sakura said, leaning back on her crutch. "I snapped out of it. It's nothing to be worried about."

"Hmm," Obito said, and Sakura felt an intense urge to lash out at him. It was her broken bones, she thought. They just wouldn't stop hurting. It was making her irritable. "Did your parents ever visit you, Sakura?"

"What?"

She was caught flatfooted, and Obito noticed it. Damn Uchiha, she thought. You couldn't hide anything from them.

"I asked if your parents ever visited you, when you were in the hospital."

"No, Sakura said. "They didn't have time."

Obito looked disappointed. "They did," he said. "I had Rin monitor all your visitors, Sakura. They came the first day, as soon as you were awake."

Sakura looked down, unwilling to make eye contact. She just stared at the stone beneath her feet, wanting more than anything for the conversation to end.

"But they only came that one time," Obito said. "Why just once?" He knelt down, coming face to face with her, but Sakura refused to look up. "You were badly hurt. You were there for several days. They were at the exam."

"I don't know," Sakura whispered. "I'd like to go home."

"I don't want to take you home if it's not where you should be," Obito said, too blunt to be kind, and Sakura felt her eyes grow hot. "Why didn't they visit you?"

"I..." Sakura said. "I said I didn't want to see them."

Obito nodded. "I figured. Rin told me there was an argument. The whole floor heard it."

Sakura felt like it would have been better if Gaara had killed her, or maybe put her in a coma. At least then she wouldn't have to have this conversation.

"They didn't want me to fight. They were afraid I'd get hurt."

"That's natural, they're your parents. Was that what the argument was about?"

"I don't know." Sakura choked. "Sensei, can I please go home? I want to lie down."

She couldn't tell what Obito was thinking. The scar that ran from below his eye to his chin crinkled.

' _Why did you fight? You knew he was crazy! He didn't even want to fight you, but you attacked anyway! You could have been killed!'_

What had she said? That she'd had to? That she couldn't let him walk away? It had been a stupid answer.

' _Honey, we're worried-'_

Get out. She'd told them to get out.

And now she was asking to go home, like nothing had happened. Maybe she was hoping that if she acted like that, it would be the truth.

Her sensei stayed there for another couple seconds, and then eventually stood up. "You know you can talk to me, if you need to," he said.

"I know," Sakura said quietly. "I promise, I know."

"Okay." Obito settled for it. "Sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"It's okay," Sakura muttered. "I'm sorry too."

Obito sighed, and took hold of her shoulder again. "You can do amazing things, Sakura." He smiled, a little sadly. "But make sure you're doing them for the right reasons."

Then Sakura was in her room, and her sensei was gone.

She stood there for a moment, and then limped over to her bed and sat down. She looked around the room, feeling like it belonged to a different Sakura Haruno. The house was quiet; her parents weren't home.

Sakura lay back, wincing as her back stung, and blew out a deep breath. She closed her eyes, listening to her breathing.

She was alive, and home. She could figure out the rest later. She fell asleep with all her clothes on, the crutch clattering to the floor, and did not dream.

###

When Sakura woke up, it was pitch black outside. The village was quiet and lit with countless lights, the cold February air oppressively bearing down on it. Sakura shivered, tugging at her blanket with one hand. Her face was freezing; the rest of her was warm in bed.

She hazily wondered why that was, her head lolling back and forth. After a minute or so, she realized what was wrong. She was under the covers, and in her pajamas. The window was open. Someone had undressed and redressed her after she'd fallen asleep, and opened the window to let some fresh air in; it had been closed when Obito had dropped her off.

The back of Sakura's neck prickled, goosebumps rising. Without a conscious thought, she found herself looking for her sword again. She found it at her bedside, resting against the nightstand on her left side. She didn't remember leaving it there; it was next to her crutch. Her parents must have been responsible. They'd come home and found her passed out, and tucked her in. She felt a pang of guilt, but it was buried by a sudden paranoia.

Something was wrong. The thought gradually worked its way up past the fog in her brain. Something was wrong, but she had no idea what. She began cautiously reaching for the sword. Who would care if she slept with it? If someone wanted to judge that, they could-

"You have great instincts, Sakura."

Sakura's cautious motion transformed into a panicked one: she snatched up her sword in a flash, bringing it above and close to her body. Adrenaline sent her bolt upright, ignoring the dull agony in her arm and leg. Then, she recognized the voice.

' _No way.'_

"Haku?" she whispered, and the boy stepped out of the shadows that cloaked the room. Sakura started, clutching her sword closer. She felt vulnerable, hidden under the blankets and with two limbs immobilized. It was one thing to be friendly with the boy from Rain; it was another entirely to be alone with him in the middle of the night.

"What are you doing here?" she asked cautiously, her brain buzzing, and the ninja stayed still, intentionally presenting no threat. He was wearing his Akatsuki haori and a black shirt and pants: even the red clouds were dark enough to become part of the shadows.

"I didn't mean to frighten you," he said, and Sakura laughed.

"Maybe you shouldn't have come into my house in the middle of the night then," she said, and the boy chuckled. "Can you… leave?"

"In a moment," Haku said, and Sakura tensed up, just growing more nervous. What was happening? Was this a dream? He stepped forward, and Sakura raised her sword on instinct. He stopped again.

"Your fight was amazing," he said, and something in Sakura sparked at the compliment. "Though I'm told you did not make chunin. I'm sorry for that."

"It was the right call," Sakura said, and she believed it. "I didn't make the smart decision."

"That might be true," Haku said. "We're going to be leaving tomorrow morning. All of us, going back to our own little corners of the world. I'm not sure I'll see you again." He stepped forward, and the moonlight coming through the window played across his face. He looked intense, focused. It reminded Sakura of their last midnight conversation, in the Forest of Death. "But you're a remarkable person, Sakura. I didn't want to leave without seeing you."

"You're freaking me out," Sakura said frankly, and Haku laughed.

"Sorry," he said, and he rubbed the back of his head. "I've never been very good at this."

"If you came to say goodbye, I appreciate it." Sakura thought about it, and then smiled. "I hope we'll meet again. And not as shinobi, you know."

"I know," Haku chuckled. "But it's not just that."

Haku reached into the pocket of his haori and removed a strip of paper. It was plain white and about the size of Sakura's hand, and he handled it with a gentle but unmistakable reverence. He extended his hand and slipped the paper in Sakura's direction, and to her astonishment it flitted across the room to her, darting on invisible currents until it drifted into her lap. She looked down and found nothing remarkable about it.

"What is this?" she asked, and Haku smiled the same sad smile Obito had before he'd left her.

"Just some paper," he said. "Actually, it's what Kabuto was getting; why he was late. I was going to give it to you after your match, but with how it ended…"

"What's it for?"

"Sakura…" Haku hesitated. "You asked how we knew so much. It's because we were keeping an eye out for people like you."

Sakura blinked, and Haku continued. "What you told me in the forest… you understand this system isn't sustainable. You don't want to be just another ninja fighting wars that don't matter for people who don't deserve it."

"What are you saying?" Sakura said, a dreadful suspicion building in her gut.

"If you ever feel like Konoha isn't the right place for you," Haku said, his conviction building. "If you ever feel like you need to fight injustice in this world, that you can't do it here-"

"Stop," Sakura demanded, and Haku ignored her.

"Just write on that paper. Anything will do. 'Save me,' 'Come get me,' 'I want to leave,' 'My name is Sakura Haruno,' whatever you want. We'll understand; the Akatsuki will understand. Someone will appear to help you."

"Haku," Sakura said, and then she stopped, having no idea what to say beyond that. "I don't… I don't want that." I don't want to go with you, she thought. You misunderstood me. I'm a ninja of the Leaf.

"You don't have to do anything with it," Haku said. "You can throw it away if you want. Just remember it." He shifted, and Sakura saw a heart full of insecurity. "Please."

"Please leave," Sakura said, and Haku backed up. "Now. Right now."

"Alright," Haku said, making his way towards the window. He stepped out, over the sill, and looked back over his shoulder, his hair streaming past his pale face in the moonlight. "Until next time, Sakura."

Then he was gone, and Sakura was left with a blank piece of paper and her own doubts. She clutched her sword to her chest for the rest of the night, and did not fall asleep until the sun rose.


	26. Faith

Breakfast

It took about a week for the whispering to go away, and when it did, Sakura felt like she'd woken up from a long and surreal dream. She could walk through the streets again without people staring at her. She still received glances, but she was sure that some of them were just for her crutches. The rest, she could ignore.

Once more, she was just Sakura Haruno, another ninja of Konoha.

That day, eleven days after the finals, Naruto had invited her to his house, and Sakura was making her way there with the same dogged determination she had to use to walk everywhere lately. It had never crossed her mind to ask for help. It was a different kind of training, she occasionally found herself thinking, to work around the pain.

The casts had come off several days ago, but the breaks had been especially nasty, and she was still in pain. The crutch wasn't strictly necessary: it just helped keep the ache in her leg bearable.

There was only so much that medical ninjutsu could do, Obito had told her. Especially with the kind of hit you took, the body needs time to fix itself fully. Sakura thought that sounded like a bunch of crap. Kabuto hadn't looked like he was in pain when he'd walked out of the arena after having his chest and arms torn open. But then, Kabuto could have been in agony too, and just better at hiding it.

When Sakura reached Naruto's home, her leg was pulsing with pain, and she buried it with a growl. She wasn't sure what to do when no one was there to greet her, so she did what the Sakura of a month ago never would have dreamed of and let herself in.

"Hello?" she called, closing the gate behind her. "Naruto?"

"Sakura!" The Yondaime popped into existence right in front of her, and Sakura screeched in surprise. The Hokage was wearing a loose white t-shirt and blue pants, and a short white apron was wrapped around his waist; it was by far the most casual Sakura had ever seen him. "Good morning! How are you feeling?"

"Lord Hokage!" Sakura blurted out, barely keeping from stumbling backwards. "My apologies!" She looked down at the apron; there was a kanji emblazoned in red on the front. _Yon_ : fourth.

' _No way.'_

"Minato," the Hokage said. "And what're you apologizing for? You're the one who was invited over, right?" He stuck out a hand. "C'mon. Naruto's in the back."

Sakura reached out and took his hand, expecting to be invited into the house, and instead was instantly in the backyard. There was no sense of motion, no delay like with Obito's Kamui; she was just in one place and then another before her eyes could even register the change. Her brain flipped, and she blinked.

"Sakura!" Naruto sounded exactly like his father: he was there, along with his mother. It looked like she'd interrupted a spar. Her teammate was on the ground, covered in grass stains, and Kushina was looking down on him from the other end of the wide field that dominated their backyard with an amused expression. "You're early!"

Sakura arched an eyebrow. "How long did you think it would take me to get here?" she asked, and Naruto coughed. He pushed himself up off the ground and dusted the grass off his pants; there were still marks covering his face and jacket. Sakura giggled.

"Be right back," the Hokage said, and he disappeared without a sound once more. Sakura glanced back over her shoulder, unsettled by the sudden absence.

"Does he always… do that?" she asked, and both Naruto and Kushina nodded.

"Oh yeah," Naruto said, wandering around the backyard and picking up a couple knives.

"All the time," Kushina confirmed. "You get used to it."

Right on cue the Yondaime appeared again, and a table covered in food alongside him. Fruit, eggs, rice, and more; it was a veritable feast. Sakura's stomach growled. Naruto's father lifted his hand up off the varnished wood, and the entire thing shifted for a second, settling into its new environment.

' _Seriously?'_

Sakura had never seen anyone use ninjutsu so frivolously, not even her sensei. The Hokage treated instant teleportation like anyone else did their hands; there was no thought for him, it was just reflex.

She couldn't decide if it was amazing or terrifying. Probably both, if she were being honest with herself.

"I overcooked the eggs…" the Hokage muttered to himself, and for the life of her Sakura couldn't tell. The eggs were scrambled, sprinkled with cheese and scallions, and they looked incredible.

"Honey, some chairs would be nice," Kushina said, and the Hokage snapped in and out of existence; four chairs fell in place around the table.

"Sorry," he said bashfully, and Kushina laughed and planted a kiss on his mouth. Naruto gagged extravagantly, and Sakura wondered what she'd wandered into.

"C'mon, let's eat," the Uzumaki said, and they all settled around the table. Sakura looked around, not sure what to do. Her parents always said what they were grateful for before they ate together; Naruto's family didn't have any sort of ritual that she could observe. They just dug in.

Sakura took small portions, not wanting to look greedy, but Naruto didn't have any compunctions; his plate was quickly completely obscured under his food. They ate in silence, Sakura trying to suppress her feeling of awkwardness. She had been trying to ignore that inner voice and growing more successful over time, but here she felt distinctly out of place.

"How are you healing, Sakura?" Kushina eventually asked, and Naruto looked over at her, his mouth full of food. Sakura swallowed, overthinking her answer.

"I'll be fine," she said, and winced at how weak her response had been. Kushina rolled her eyes.

"Duh," she said. "I meant how are you doing?"

"It hurts," Sakura decided, trying to be frank, and Kushina nodded sympathetically.

"No shock there," she said. "It's surprising you're recovering as fast as you are." Sakura blinked at that. It had been nearly two weeks; an eternity for most shinobi. Kushina saw her surprised reaction.

"You got punched by a Tailed Beast," she said with a laugh. "You might not know this, but their chakra is incredibly toxic. It inhibits the body's natural healing process, and can stop medical ninjutsu too." She grew a little less amused. "Honestly, you could have died from chakra shock just from that hit. You were lucky, you know."

"I know," Sakura muttered, half expecting another lecture, but Kushina didn't press forward. She was far too grateful for that; it seemed every other conversation she had nowadays was people trying to tell her that picking fights with Tailed Beasts was a bad idea. Like that wasn't self evident.

"Still, you performed incredibly," Kushina said, glancing at her husband. "More than earned a promotion, I'd say."

The Hokage coughed, and Naruto sat up. "That's what I said!" he said, his mouth still full. "She kicked ass!"

"It wasn't that simple," Sakura said quietly, and Naruto gave her a funny look. "Like Obito said. I made an enemy, right?" She didn't look at the Hokage; she still didn't know how to square him being the village's leader and also being the man who'd made her this delicious meal, _and_ Naruto's father, _and_ the kind of person who'd wear an apron emblazoned with _Yon._ Too many conflicting views of Minato Namikaze were clashing in her head right now.

"You did," Minato confirmed, and Sakura forced himself to face him. He wasn't talking to her as the Hokage right now. At least, she didn't think so. He was speaking as Naruto's father. "You won your fight, Sakura. At least where it counted. But that was precisely why you could never have made chunin."

"Because Gaara was the Kazekage's son?" she asked, and Minato nodded.

"That's one of many, _including_ your impulsiveness," he said, leaning back and giving her a thoughtful frown. "I'm sure Obito told you this as well, but you made Sand look like fools in front of the world. Promoting you after that would have been, well, rude, since the Hidden Sand is ostensibly our ally." He grinned. "Though the Amekage still voted in your favor. She enjoyed rubbing that in Rasa's face."

"I thought…" Sakura frowned and shook her head. "No, I knew something like that would probably happen. I guess I just didn't care."

"That's mature of you," Minato said with another nod. "I hope you won't hold it against me." That was the Hokage speaking, not Naruto's father, and Sakura gave him a shy smile.

"How could I?" she said. "I was expecting it, after all."

She felt another little wall break down, and for once tried not to overthink that as well.

"S'not fair," Naruto muttered, and his father shrugged.

"Nope," he said. "But you know what I say, Naruto-"

"Yeah yeah." Naruto waved him off. "'Being a shinobi is about sacrifice,' that kinda stuff. So what, Sakura sacrificed being a chunin? She didn't get to make that choice."

"Sometimes you don't get to," Kushina said. "Sometimes, you get called upon to sacrifice yourself, and that's that."

Sakura looked over at her, and Kushina must have noticed her expression, because she gave her a coy look as she stuffed half a melon in her mouth. "Something wrong, Sakura?"

"I…" Sakura didn't even know what to say, or if it was her place too. It couldn't be, right? But she pressed ahead regardless, her mouth ignoring her brain's desperate demands to shut up. "You said, right after I got matched up with him, that Gaara was a victim of circumstances." Kushina nodded, pursing her lips. "You meant that he was the same as you?"

"Well, I never murdered anyone for the fun of it," Kushina said with a thoughtful look, and Minato snorted. "What?"

"You and I must remember the academy differently," he said, and Kushina went red in the face.

"They didn't _die_!" she insisted. "They just had to learn a lesson!" She huffed and regained her composure. "But yes; we're both jinchuriki. Naruto told you, right?"

Naruto looked down, clearly embarrassed, and Sakura found herself mirroring him. Kushina just laughed. "Oh, don't look so sad! It's not a big deal, y'know!" She laughed again, a little quieter. "Though if the only other one you know is Gaara… yeah."

She shifted. "Did you want to ask me about it?"

"I don't know what I'd ask," Sakura said honestly, and Kushina grinned.

"Listen, I'm just like you," she said, leaning forward with both elbows on the table. "The only difference is that I've got a big grumpy bastard right in here," she said, patting her stomach. "The Nine-Tailed Fox, if you're curious."

That didn't mean much to Sakura: there were nine-tailed beasts, and that was the extent of her knowledge. Did having nine tails mean it was the biggest? Or the smallest? Or neither? She didn't want to ask, sure that the question would be stupid.

"Can you use it? Like Gaara could?" she asked instead, and Kushina shook her head.

"Well, sorta," she corrected herself, and Minato nodded. "Just a little. Its chakra is so huge and poisonous that I'd die if I let too much out, but I have a seal designed to release little bursts." She opened her mouth, pointing at her extended incisors: they were quite long and sharp for a human's, even more so than Kiba's. "That's how I ended up with these. They only popped up in the last couple years."

"Is that why Naruto has his scars?" Sakura finally burst out, unable to contain herself any more, and Kushina laughed, seizing her son by the cheek as he protested loudly.

"It is!" she said, sounding proud, like she'd carved them in herself. "Aren't they adorable?! Best mutation ever!"

"Cut it out!" Naruto laughed, swatting at his mom's hands and falling sideways off his chair. He tried to stick himself to it by his butt, but his control wasn't precise enough: he ended up just sliding down the side of the thick wooden furniture, his butt glued to it by his chakra.

"Well done," his mother said, as dry as a bone, and Naruto grumbled from his sideways position in the grass.

"I get self conscious," he muttered, and his mom laughed.

"No you don't."

Naruto stuck out his tongue. "Well, what would make you stop poking 'em?"

"She's been poking at them since the day you were born," Minato said with a soft grin. "Face it; you can't stop her."

"I could henge them off," Naruto declared, pulling himself back into his chair and grabbing another bite of omurice, and Minato gave a mock gasp.

"And break her heart?" On cue, Kushina's lips wobbled. "You wouldn't dare."

Sakura giggled and Naruto surrendered, slumping into the table."Alright," he said in a tragic voice. "You-"

Minato suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Sakura flinched away from the sudden sound. She saw Naruto do the same thing. Kushina was the only one who didn't react.

"Wh-?" she started to say, but she didn't even have time to finish the word. Minato reappeared without a sound and caught his chopsticks before they could land on the table. Kushina laughed.

"You'd think they'd learn," she said, and Minato chuckled.

"They're going to catch me one day," he said, and then as Sakura watched with wide eyes he nipped at the side of his thumb, drawing a couple drops of blood and making a series of hand signs too quickly for her to follow. "But not today."

He placed his palm down on the table next to the plate, and there was another explosion of smoke. When it cleared, there was…

Well, Sakura didn't know what it was. Her first thought was a little green man in a brown cloak, barely a foot tall, with a goatee, thick bushy eyebrows, and a tuft of white hair, but more than a glancing look made it obvious that whatever Minato had summoned wasn't human. It didn't have ears or lips, and its skin was smooth and hairless. It turned, looking indignant, and she saw that its eyes were dull yellow, with horizontal pupils.

' _Like a toad,'_ she thought, and Minato grinned at the new arrival.

"Revered elder," he said, as respectful as someone should have addressed _him_ , and the creature snorted.

"You little brat," the toad said in a gravelly voice. "I was in the middle of breakfast, ya know!"

MInato cocked an eyebrow and looked around, and the toad followed his gaze, glancing at the diminished buffet. "Bah," it scoffed. "Not a wriggle amongst it. You're getting squishy, lad."

"Glad to hear you don't approve," Minato said, and the creature laughed. It turned, actually looking at the others at the table.

"Kushina, won't you control this ungrateful husband of yours?" it asked, and the Uzumaki crossed her arms.

"I doubt I could," she said with a grin. "If you're going to try summoning him, do it around noon. He likes a power-nap around then."

"Kushina," the Hokage whined. "They don't need any help!"

"Mmm," the toad grumbled. "Naruto," it nodded, and Naruto waved back with an ebullient "geezer!" Its horizontal eyes settled on Sakura last. "Who's this?"

"Sakura Haruno," she said after a moment, not sure if she should extend a hand or just nod. She settled for a slight bow, and the toad snorted.

"Polite," he said. "Ya love to see it."

"Sakura," Minato said. "This is Fukasaku, Revered Elder and Sage of the Toads of Mount Myoboku." He gave that slight smile of his. "One of my teachers."

"Don't act like that's my most important title," Fukasaku grumbled. "Why can't ya just obey the summons like a good disciple?"

"Maybe you could ask politely next time?" Minato suggested, and the toad gagged.

"Each generation of ya humans is pickier than the last," it complained. "What happened to the ones who'd fall down at the sight o' us? Used to be people were honored by a summon to Myoboku."

"They all died," Minato said dryly. "Hundreds of years ago."

"Bah!" Fukasaku waved him off, and the Hokage laughed.

"Why _did_ you summon me, elder?" he asked, and the toad sobered up a little; Sakura realized she was watching a very old ritual conclude.

"It's little Jiraiya," he said, and the Hokage leaned forward. Sakura knew the name; that was one of the Sannin. Though she didn't think there would be anyone else in the world who would call him 'little.'

"What's he done this time?" Minato asked, and Fukasaku frowned.

"It's what he hasn't done," the elderly toad said. "He's been resisting the summons too. We sent Gamatoro to bring him and he came back with no memory of his mission."

"Gamatoro did?" Minato asked, and Fukasaku nodded. The Hokage narrowed his eyes and leaned back. "Jiraiya wouldn't have done something like that."

"Of course not!" Fukasaku declared. "That boy is too good at getting in trouble! That's why we summoned you; to send one brat to check on another!"

"I'll send someone right away, revered elder," Minato said, and the toad harrumphed.

"Good!" he said. "I'm going back to my meal." He didn't spare another word for goodbyes: a puff of smoke was all, and then he was gone.

"A mission from the toads, huh?" Kushina said, and Minato crossed his arms with a frown. "That's unusual."

"Sensei has just been getting more stubborn," the Hokage said. "But if Myoboku thinks he needs looking in on...they're almost certainly right." He stood up, pulling away from the table. "I'm going to check some things. Finish without me?"

"On it!" Naruto declared, and his father laughed and disappeared.

"That was a summon?" Sakura asked, and Naruto nodded as he polished off his plate. "I didn't know the Yondaime could summon… Toads?"

"Yeah, toads," Naruto confirmed. "They come around every once in a while. Some of them are weirdos, but a bunch are cool." He got a thoughtful look. "They have some really cool water jutsu… maybe they could help you with your Ryusuiken!"

Sakura had never considered seeking out the help of talking animals to become a better swordswoman, but she'd also never considered that a foot tall toad so old it called a grown man a brat would be able to make the Hokage leap into action with just a few words, so her horizons were rapidly expanding. She sat back, cradling her right arm as it ached and pondering the thought.

But as she did, another one crept in.

' _You should tell him.'_

Her left hand unconsciously patted one of her pockets; the paper was still there. Sakura had been carrying it her with her everywhere she went, irrationally scared that if she left it in her room one of her parents would ask her about it. That was ridiculous; it was a blank strip of paper. Even the most paranoid shinobi wouldn't see it as more than that. And yet, she was compelled to keep it close.

She'd never sign it, she thought. But if that was the case, why hadn't she just thrown it away?

"Sakura?" Naruto was looking at her, and Sakura realized she'd been staring at him, her finger tapping against the paper inside her pocket. She blushed, looking away. "What is it?"

She didn't want to tell him. What would he think? Haku wasn't an idiot: if he'd thought she really could betray the village and defect to one of its rivals, couldn't there be some truth to that that Sakura couldn't see in herself? And if Naruto found out, his father was the Hokage, and that-

"Hey, you're overthinking something," Naruto said, scooting forward. "What's up?"

"What?" Sakura asked, feigning innocence. "I'm not, promise."

"Yeah you are," Naruto insisted. "Your nose is all scrunched up, that's your overthinking face. Is it your arm? It's gonna heal up."

Did she make that face often? Sakura felt a bit of shame at being so easy to read.

"Naruto…" she said, glancing at Kushina.

"Want me to leave?" Kushina asked, and for the first time in her life Sakura cursed the fact that most of the people she knew were ninja. It was unreasonably hard to hide even little things from them.

"Would that be okay?" she asked, and Kushina nodded.

"Sure. Plenty to clean up, ya know," she said, standing up from the table and clearing their plates. "I'll be back in a bit." She planted a kiss on Naruto's forehead before he could squirm away and laughed.

And then she was gone, and it was just the two of them.

"Ummm…" Naruto didn't seem to know what to say. "Sakura? You okay?"

"Naruto," Sakura started, sure she was making a terrible mistake. "Did anyone come to see you, after the final?"

"Well sure," Naruto said. "Shikamaru and Choji and Ino, and Hinata and Kiba and-"

"Anyone _else_?" Sakura asked, and Naruto titled his head. She painfully pulled herself out of her chair and Naruto followed her as they wandered deeper into the yard. "Anyone… not from the village?"

"What? Like from Sand or something?" Naruto asked, and Sakura nodded.

"No, no one like that," Naruto said. "Did someone come to see you? Was it one of those creeps from Sand?" Naruto's face started twisting up in anger, but Sakura held up her good hand before he could work himself up.

"It wasn't Sand," she said. "It was Haku."

"Haku?" Naruto instantly went from anger to confusion.

"The day I got out of the hospital. He showed up at my house that night, and-"

" _What_?!"

"Let me finish!" Sakura said, and Naruto raised his hands with a confused expression.

"He gave me this!" Sakura said, feeling like she was tearing off a bandaid as she yanked the paper out of her pocket. Naruto stared at it without comprehension, looking back and forth between it and her.

"It's some paper," he pointed out, and Sakura grimaced.

"It's just some paper, yeah," she said. "But Haku…" She choked on the words, and her teammate took a concerned step forward. "He told me that if I ever wanted to leave the village, I just needed to write on it."

"Huh?" Naruto didn't look alarmed, just baffled. "But you'd never leave the village."

Sakura felt herself start to tear up at the honesty and simplicity of what he'd said, and Naruto quickly grew panicked. "What'd I say?!" he asked, and Sakura started hyperventilating, the paper trembling in her hand.

"She's relieved, dummy." Kushina appeared out of nowhere, plucking the paper out of Sakura's hands, and she felt something heavy leave her with it. It was literally out of her hands now; the paralyzing possibility, no matter how impossible, was gone.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "You said you'd leave!"

"I totally did," Kushina said with a grin. "But I never said anything about not eavesdropping, right?"

She'd heard her. The Hokage's wife had heard her. Sakura started trembling even more violently, and Kushina grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Hey," she said. "Sit down." Sakura did, and Kushina sat alongside her. "Calm down too, while you're at it." That one, Sakura couldn't do.

She sat there wondering what was going to happen to her, and Kushina snorted. "Don't look so damn nervous," she said, and Naruto sat down too, the three of them forming a triangle. "So you got an offer from Rain? That's pretty impressive, ya know."

"What?" Sakura asked, trying to center herself. Kushina wasn't mad. Naruto wasn't mad. She was going to be fine. Why would they be mad at her? She hadn't done anything. Control your breathing, dumbass.

"Rain is always trying to recruit strong shinobi," Kushina said, and Sakura remembered something she'd dismissed as propaganda a couple weeks before. "It's a nation built by exceptional individuals, and they always want more." She gave Sakura a grin full of teeth. "So if they were approaching you, Sakura, they must have really seen something special."

"I don't know-" Sakura said, and Kushina scoffed.

"You stabbed a Jinchuriki, remember?" she said, and Sakura wondered if she felt anything on Gaara's behalf. She was certain no one else did. "That's always gonna make an impression."

"I don't think it was just that," Sakura said, the words pouring out without regard. "I talked a lot with Haku, that night we were in the forest. He told me about the Akatsuki, and I-"

"Agreed with him?" Kushina said, and Sakura nodded, not sure if she could or should elaborate. What would she say? That she helped articulate his own beliefs? That would just be even worse. "That's fair. Really, anyone who listens to someone from the Akatsuki explain their values should agree with them."

"Really?" Sakura asked, and Kushina nodded.

"They've got admirable ideals," she said. "Building peace, right?" She sat back. "But it was obvious from the beginning what was happening," Kushina continued. "Rain's team linked up with you guys immediately, as soon as the second exam began. And I'd bet they were watching you before that, right?"

They had been, Sakura thought. Haku had made eye contact with her the very moment they'd been in the same room. Wasn't that strange, in hindsight? In a room with over a hundred other ninja…

' _We were keeping an eye out for people like you.'_

"They were probably looking out for you, Naruto," Kushina said, and Naruto cocked his head.

"Cause of dad?" he said, and Kushina clucked her tongue.

"Yup. You'd make a great hostage, and an even better defector," she said, and Naruto frowned. "So if they could figure out your deal early on…"

"But they didn't seem like that," Naruto said. "Kabuto fixed up Sasuke… we talked for a lot. I mean, I'm not a mind reader or anything, but he didn't give me that feeling."

"And Haku didn't Sakura," Kushina said. "Most likely, they were all being sincere with you. The Amekage sent true believers; those are always the best to convince others." She pointed at her son. "But they didn't approach you, Naruto, cause you didn't resonate with them as much. You liked Kabuto, but as a person, not his ideals." Her finger shifted. "But Sakura… you sympathized with both Haku and his beliefs. That's why they approached you."

She grinned. "Believe it or not, one person can drag their friends along with them when they abandon something. Naruto, if Sakura felt like she had to leave the village to do something important, would you go with her?"

Naruto shifted, looking doubtful. "I mean, I'd ask you guys first."

"And if we said no?" Kushina asked, her tone a little less playful. "If we forced you to choose between us and Sakura? What would you do?"

"I…" Naruto frowned, dropping his head. "I don't know."

Sakura could feel her heart beating at that admission. Kushina gave them both a sad smile.

"That's how organizations like the Akatsuki function," she said. "They make you make impossible choices; no matter which one you make, you feel like you've failed somehow. That's how they get you. But Sakura…" She shifted, lifting one hand palm up. "You beat them with your honesty alone. That's the trick of it."

"I don't want to beat them," Sakura said quietly. "I want… what Haku told me made sense. About shinobi. About the minor villages." She looked up, making eye contact with Kushina. "About Uzushiogakure."

"Whirlpool?" Kushina asked, and for the first time since they'd sat down she looked uncertain.

"You're an Uzumaki, right?" Sakura said, and Kushina nodded. "Haku told me that Uzushiogakure was crushed between Cloud and Mist, during the Second War. I looked it up, and it seemed true."

"It was," Kushina said. Her attitude had shifted. She was cautious now, wondering what Sakura was poking at when Sakura hardly knew herself. "Cloud and Mist were both threatened by Whirlpool's sealing experts; it was a small village, but it had several powerful masters of fuinjutsu, including the First Hokage's wife."

"Really?" Naruto asked. "I never knew that. How come you never told me?"

"I came to Konoha when I was very young, Naruto," Kushina said, shifting towards him. "Mito was my great aunt twice removed or something like that; she was also the last jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. She chose me to be her inheritor because of my chakra." Some of the life left her face. "Soon after I left, less than a year, the village was destroyed. Konoha became my only home."

"And we couldn't help?" Sakura asked, and Kushina tilted her head, looking so similar to her son for a moment that Sakura blinked. "Konoha couldn't help?"

"The Leaf did everything it could, but it was at war with both the Hidden Sand and Stone, and couldn't afford to make more enemies," Kushina said, inadvertently confirming something else Haku had told Sakura. "That's why the attack happened at all. There were considerations made towards rebuilding the village, but it would just have been knocked down again. Cloud and Mist are both incredibly dependent on jinchuriki for maintaining their power; my clan's proficiencies were always going to be a threat to them." Kushina gave them a sour smile. "So the Uzumaki scattered; we're all over the world now, and I doubt that will change anytime soon."

"Didn't that make you mad?" Naruto asked, and for just a second Sakura saw a very different Kushina in front of her, a young girl boiling with rage. But the phantom image was gone as quickly as it appeared, and Sakura blinked, wondering what on earth she'd just imagined.

"Furious," Kushina said. "It made me want to burn the whole world down. I took out that anger on anyone who got in my way." She made a fist and laughed. "I still have plenty, I guess. It's something you learn when you grow up. Anger is good; it's how you use it that matters."

Sakura wondered if Obito and Kushina had been swapping notes, or if they'd arrived at the same conclusion separately.

"In the end, no matter how angry I got, I realized it was meaningless," Kushina said. "What happened to my clan couldn't have been prevented. It was a circumstance created by the system of villages. A smaller one became vulnerable, and its rivals took the advantage." She shrugged, and discarded decades of suffering in a single motion. "That's just how it is."

There was a moment of silence; Naruto didn't seem to know what to say, but Sakura did. "How it is," she said eventually, and Kushina gave her a lopsided grin. "But maybe not how they could be."

"Man, they got you good," Kushina laughed, stretching out.

"I don't mean it like-"

"Don't worry," the older woman said, waving her off. "You just about cried when Naruto told you you wouldn't leave earlier, Sakura. There's not any question about your loyalties." She stood up, taking the paper with her. "Keep that anger, and keep those ideals. See where they take you guys, alright?"

"You guys?" Naruto asked, and Kushina waggled her eyebrows.

"You're a team. Where one of you goes, all of you will," she said. "That's the way it's always going to be. Just keep that in mind, ya know?"

She left them sitting there in the grass, and Sakura looked around, wondering what had just happened.

"Well, that was weird," Naruto said, lying back and staring up at the blue sky. After a moment, Sakura joined him, the both of them lying side by side and looking up at the drifting winter clouds. It was nice, Sakura thought. Quiet and peaceful, and not too cold.

"Hey, Sakura," Naruto said, rolling over and looking at her, and Sakura looked over at him, wondering what he was going to say.

You're not going to leave, right? We're a team, right? I can trust you, right?

But she realized in a heartbeat that Naruto took that all on faith when he didn't say anything like that.

"Wanna learn the Rasengan?"

###

**Wow, more than 25 chapters already. This seems like an appropriate place to thank everyone who's been reading this. Yes, that means you! I'm having the time of my life writing Obito-Sensei, and I hope you're having a good time reading it. The next arc is going to be a fun one; can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it.  
**

**Stay healthy!**


	27. B-Rank

The Toad Sage

Three days later, Sakura could walk without the assistance of crutches. She spent all of those days with her team, training to rebuild what strength she'd lost from her time in the hospital. A lot of that training was with the principles of the Rasengan. Obito had told her it would be a good place to start: she already had the basics in her Flowing Water Blade.

She took to it quickly. After three days, Sakura had already burst a water balloon with just her chakra. Being able to walk like a normal person, albeit with some pain, was the perfect accompaniment to that breakthrough.

The day after that, Team 7 received a new mission.

"This will be your first B-Rank." Sakura didn't know the man who was assigning them the mission. He was short and pale, with shaggy brown hair concealed under a bandana and a persistent cough. There was a sword slung over his back as well, and from that alone Sakura felt an irrational kinship with him. Maybe Tenten had been getting to her more than she'd given credit for.

"Other ninja?" Sasuke asked, all business, and the man, Hayato, shook his head.

"Not necessarily," he said, giving their sensei a surreptitious glance. "B-Rank only indicates the possibility of enemy shinobi." Sakura wondered what that meant. When it came to ninja, it ironically was unmistakable if they were involved or not. Then again, B-Ranks weren't uncommon. They probably covered a wide range of possible scenarios, like-

"Yeah yeah yeah." Naruto snatched the scroll out of the man's hand, and Sakura's train of thought with it, and the older ninja blew out a frustrated breath. "Everything we need to know here, right?"

"Yeah." Hayato gave a disgusted wave. "Yeah, everything you need. Get out of here."

When Team Seven left the building, Obito took them aside.

"We've been specially selected for this mission," he said, and Sasuke snorted.

" _You've_ been specially selected for this mission," he said, and Sakura had to laugh at the honesty of it. "We're the tagalongs."

"Hey now, don't be so negative," their sensei said with a grin. "You guys have all more than proven yourself ready for a B-Rank like this."

"Course we have!" Naruto said. Always so confident, and Sakura adored that about him. "So, what're the details?" He unrolled the scroll, and scrunched up his nose at what was inside. The writing was jagged but organized, Sakura thought. "Hey, this is-"

"Sensei's handwriting," Obito confirmed. The Hokage's handwriting, Sakura thought. It fit him. Strange that she could think that about Naruto's father, but she tried not to overthink it. Naruto was her friend: of course she was familiar with his father.

"This mission's from my dad?" Naruto asked.

"Technically, he was given it by someone else," their sensei said wryly. "You were there when it happened."

"What, the Toads?" Naruto asked, and Obito nodded.

"Yup."

"Then… we're going looking for Jiraiya of the Sannin?" Sakura said, and Obito gave her a thumbs up.

"Perceptive as ever, Sakura. This is a tracking mission. Well, something between that and a VIP escort." Obito gestured, and Naruto handed the scroll over. He cleared his throat and read from it in an overly formal tone. "Your mission is to ascertain the whereabouts of and make contact with Jiraiya of the Sannin, and should he blah blah blah." He trailed off, handing the scroll back to Naruto, who tucked it in his pants. "You get it. Our mission is to locate a legendary ninja and, if able, bring him back to Konoha."

"And that's… B-Rank?" Sakura asked, and Sasuke snorted.

"This is gonna end up just like that first C-Rank," he said, and Obito scoffed. "A Sannin? That invites all sorts of trouble."

"There's only so many rogue ninja to go around you know, Sasuke," Obito said in good humor. "Even you can't be that unlucky."

Sasuke smirked. "When are we leaving?"

"Two hours," Obito said. "This could be a long term mission; it's at least a day's journey to the first destination, and tracking missions always run longer than expected, so pack appropriately. Grab all your stuff, meet at the front gate. Familiar, right?"

Weirdly familiar. Sakura said her goodbyes and went home, mostly anonymous in the streets once more. She still got the occasional glance, but the whispers were gone. She was thankful for that. She couldn't imagine how it would feel to have people whisper about you wherever you went.

When she was almost home, she bumped into Team Eight coming out of a restaurant. Just finishing brunch, probably. Hinata waved, and Sakura's eyes were drawn to her missing finger.

"Sakura!" she called, and from Kiba's side Akamaru barked. He was getting bigger, Sakura noted, almost up to the boy's knees now. "How are you?" Kiba lazily waved as well; Shino, like usual, was still and silent, regarding Sakura with an unreadable expression from behind his opaque glasses.

"Hey!" Sakura called, slowing down just a little as she passed them. "We've got a new mission: I'm going home for some stuff."

"Mind if we walk with you?" Kiba asked, and Sakura didn't have any reason to say no. She went on her way, with three new companions. It felt nice to walk with someone at her side. "What kind of mission is it?"

"B-Rank VIP," Sakura said, and Kiba whistled.

"Wow, you guys are pricey nowadays," he said, and Sakura laughed. He flashed his teeth, sharing in the humor. "Though I guess with your flashy stuff during the exam, that's no surprise."

"It's well deserved," Shino said quietly, and like usual Sakura almost jumped at how sudden and soft his voice was. "Team Seven preformed admirably. Higher ranked missions are the natural consequence of that performance."

"...thanks, Shino," Sakura said, deciding to accept the strangely neutral compliment, and the odd boy gave her a slight nod.

"We said it in the hospital, Sakura," Hinata said, and Sakura smiled at her. "But we really… really wanted to thank you. For fighting Gaara. It helped our…"

"Our pride!" Kiba said indignantly. "We all owe you for giving that crapsack the beating you did. You ever need anything, Team Eight is gonna be one-hundred percent behind you!"

I didn't fight him for you, Sakura thought, even as she smiled and humbly accepted the promise. I fought him for myself. I got so angry for all your sakes, but in the end I didn't remember any of that. I just wanted to hurt him for myself.

She felt two-faced, and her stomach churned. Before any of them knew it, they'd reached her house.

"Guess this is it," Sakura said, trying to squash the queasy feeling. "Hope we see you guys after the mission."

"Hey!" Kiba said, nudging Hinata, and the girl blushed and shied away. "Aren't you gonna-?"

"KIba," Shino said, and the boy gave him a perplexed look.

"What? At this rate she's never gonna give it up!" Sakura watched with amusement as Team Eight descended into bickering. Eventually, Hinata stomped her feet, red in the face.

"Stop it!" she said, and Kiba over at her, almost nose to nose with Shino. The Aburame had refused to flinch. Somehow, she got even redder. "I'll… I'll do it."

She reached into her jacket, and drew out a small container. There was a piece of paper, folded many times, taped to the top of it. Hinata gingerly extended her hand out towards Sakura, and she took it with a bemused feeling.

"What's this?" she asked. "For me?" She didn't think it would be possible, but Hinata was only getting more flustered. She looked like she was going to explode out of embarrassment.

"N-no," the girl said, tripping over the word. "That's for, uh…"

"One of my teammates?" Sakura asked, and Hinata nodded. She'd never seen the other girl get so worked up. "Naruto, or Sasuke?"

Hinata choked, unable to speak, and held up two of her four fingers. Sakura smiled, hoping the girl wouldn't collapse on her.

"Alright," she said, and Hinata deflated like one of the balloon's Sakura had spent the last couple days destroying. "I'll get it to him."

"Thank you!" Hinata said, and just about ran away. Kiba chased after her with a laugh, but Shino stayed for a moment.

"I appreciate it," he said, and Sakura nodded, not sure what to say. "Hinata appreciates it too, even if she doesn't have the words for it." Then he turned and left too, and Sakura was left alone at her home.

She shrugged, pocketed the container, and went inside.

Her home was quiet. The spark of life that is usually contained was gone.

"Sakura?" her father called, and Sakura went upstairs without a word. She slipped into her own room, looking around. It was still getting colder: they'd be traveling a long distance. She silently opened her closet, a ghost in her own home. She had a couple different jackets. One of them was red and had some cute pink frills around the waist, the same color as her hair. Sakura had never worn it before. She'd thought it looked silly.

No, that was a lie. She'd thought that other people might think it looked silly.

' _You wanna leave the village looking like that?'_ Sakura reached out and tried the jacket on. It was thick and warm, and like all clothes made with ninja in mind, very easy to move in. It even rested comfortably over the sheath of her sword, concealing the hilt.

It was like Kushina had said, she thought. She'd stabbed a Jinchuriki. Who cared if someone thought her jacket looked silly? _She_ liked it.

"Sakura?" She turned and found her father in the doorway. "Hey, you're wearing… it looks good."

"I've got a mission," she said, getting back to gathering her things. This felt familiar, she thought. Like her first C-Rank. But everything was wrong. She didn't feel any warmth and excitement. Just resentment.

"I heard," Kizashi said, and Sakura wondered who had told him. Probably her sensei, right? "You're up for it?"

Her arm and leg still ached, but she didn't want her father to know that, so she shrugged. "I'm up for it."

"Okay." What had happened to them? Sakura felt an itch in her chest. Talking to her father had never been like this. It had always been natural and warm. It felt like they were two puppets going through a half-hearted play. She hated it. "Well…"

Her father hesitated. "Sakura, your mother and I, we're both really…"

Sakura should have felt a breath of relief, but instead something burned in her heart. She felt her nose twitch into a sneer. That was the best they could do?

"Sorry?" she asked, and her father closed his mouth, stricken. "You're both sorry?"

"Hey now," her father said, a little stricter. Not nearly enough to dissuade her. "I'm being honest. We didn't mean to hurt your feelings. We were so worried about you-"

"You shouldn't have been," Sakura said, turning her back on him and organizing her backpack. "I was fine."

"He broke your arm and leg," Kizashi said quietly. Sakura flinched at his tone. "You would have died if it weren't for the Kage. I know you're not that _stupid_ , that you'd say 'I was fine' and mean it."

Sakura didn't say anything, stubbornly packing her bag in silence. After a minute, her father blew out a breath.

"I don't want it to be like this, honey," he said, and Sakura grit her teeth. "We just want to talk to you. It's like you're not even here any more. We're proud of you. We're incredibly proud of you. You're becoming an amazing ninja. We don't want that to mean you can't be our daughter anymore."

Sakura didn't know what to say, so she stayed quiet, the silence growing more and more oppressive until the room was so thick with it that neither of them could breathe.

"Okay." Her father gave up, and Sakura felt something crack inside her at the defeat in his voice.

' _Why don't you say something?'_

"Stay safe on your mission, okay?" he said, and then he left.

' _You're just going to let him leave?'_

She did.

Sakura listened to her father walk down the stairs, trembling. He was letting his footsteps make noise, letting her know he really was going. She stood there trying to control her shaking. Why hadn't she said something? Why wasn't she _saying_ something? Just because she didn't know what to say? Surely something would be better than nothing, right?

But she stayed mute, and it was only when her father settled down in the living room that she resumed packing. When Sakura left about ten minutes later, wearing her jacket, her sword, and her pack, her father didn't rise to send her off. She stopped at the door, struggling to say something.

"Sorry," she eventually whispered, and then she left.

###

Just like that first C-Rank, Sakura met her team at the front gate. But this time, they didn't set out immediately. Someone else was there besides the normal passerbys, who were staring as she and Obito had a passionate conversation.

"How stupid are you?" Rin Nohara asked, and Obito rubbed the back of his head with a look in between embarrassment and anger. Naruto and Sasuke were both behind him, snickering at his reaction. "You thought you could take one of my patients out of the village without me knowing?" She was dressed in combat gear; Sakura had never seen her like that before. She had a flak vest on, and the same kind of protective arm-bands that Obito wore. They were almost a matching pair, but Rin had fewer scars.

And, Sakura noticed with some amusement, almost an inch on him. It was especially obvious with him face to face with her, the both of them red.

"She hasn't been your patient for like, two weeks!" Obito declared. They both looked over at Sakura as she arrived, and she blushed when she realized she was the subject of their conversation. "She's perfectly fine!"

"Oh, I must have missed you taking my job Obito!" Rin laughed, walking over to Sakura. She watched her come with apprehension, and the older woman grinned at her. "Hey Sakura. How you doing?"

"Good?" Sakura said cautiously, and Naruto laughed.

"She's good, Rin-sensei!" he said, and Rin grinned at the appellation. "There's nothing to worry about?"

"That's great, but it's my job to worry," Rin said with a smile. She removed a letter from her jacket. "That's why I got special orders right here."

"Gimme that." Obito tried to snatch the paper from Rin's hand and she danced around him with an unfading smile. "You seriously went to sensei?"

"I got asked to," Rin said, her smile dropping. "And I took it seriously. That's why I'm going to be tagging along with you guys."

That was weird, Sakura immediately thought. Even if Rin wanted to keep an eye on her to make sure she was healing fine, she was still a jonin. Her coming along was anything but normal. Right away, the mission was strange.

"The more the merrier," Sasuke said dryly. He gestured to the open gate. "What's the point in arguing about it, sensei? Let's get going. We've got a long trip ahead of us."

Obito grumbled. "It would be nice to have someone else along," he muttered. "Just wish you hadn't gone behind my back."

"I didn't," Rin said with a sweet smile. "I just couldn't find you, so I figured I'd ask sensei first."

Obito snorted. "Forgiveness or permission, huh?" He laughed. "C'mon then." They both started heading for the gate, and Sakura followed, trying to understand what she'd just seen. There was another conversation here that was invisible to her, and it was sparking an old curiosity in her, the one that had first appeared when she'd first seen Rin a hundred years ago.

"Hey!" Naruto fell in at her side, and before they were even out the gate they'd formed a rough formation with Sasuke at the front, the adults in the center, and Sakura and Naruto bringing up the rear. It really was incredible, Sakura thought, that something like that happened without any of them thinking about it. It was just trained into their bones. "Is that jacket new? It's cool!"

"Not that new." Sakura smiled. "Just hadn't worn it before." Naruto nodded, and she tilted her head towards Obito and Rin. "What's up with them?"

"Oh," Naruto scoffed. "Obito's acting annoyed, but he's happy. Rin showed up and said my dad told her to come with us to keep an eye on you, cause you're still healing and all." He laughed. "As if. You're fine, right?"

"Yeah," Sakura said, trying to believe it as her arm ached again. "You don't think that's the real reason?"

Naruto waggled his eyebrows, and Sakura noticed their sensei glancing back at them. She smiled at him, and he grinned, before Rin nudged him in the shoulder and they were drawn back into their muttered conversation.

"Remember what I told you, way back? When we were fixing up that bridge?" he said, and Sakura nodded. "Rin's not just a crazy good medic ninja; when she goes on missions, they're really important."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Then why send us, if it's that important? We're still just genin. Why make it a B-Rank?"

"Yeah…" Naruto said, looking thoughtful. "I dunno. But something's definitely weird, right?"

"Yeah," Sakura said, looking back at her sensei's back and wondering what he was thinking. She rested her hand on her sword's hilt, and felt calm creeping up her arm as she felt the non-weight of the chakra saturated blade. She sighed.

"Definitely."

###

Obito stayed at the front of his team's formation for the duration of the first leg of their journey, making small talk with Rin and keeping an eye on his kids. For him, it was an incredible feeling. He often led a lonely life, but the last month and some had been extreme even for him. He'd spent almost every day with Sakura and Asuma, agonizing over her training.

Sakura hadn't seen it, and neither had Asuma, but every day had been torture for him. He hadn't had a good night's sleep in the last month. Every waking moment was spent coaching Sakura, and when he slept, he dreamt of her death.

He looked back at her, marveling at her vitality, the fact that she was alive and kicking. It had been so easy to see Kakashi in her place, hear his last gasp every time she spoke. Too easy, if he was being honest with himself.

His sensei was right, as usual. His only issue was confidence. Gaara had been frightening, but at heart he'd just been a homicidal bully. He hadn't had near as much to lose as Sakura had, and that was why she'd humiliated him. He hadn't put enough faith in his own student, even after working with her every day for a month.

"Hey, what're you getting all morose about?" Rin asked, and Obito shook his head, trying to dispel his mood with a smile. He looked over at her, trying to appear carefree.

"Just glad you're here," he said, and Rin snorted. They were pretty far outside the village now, traversing the hidden paths through the forests that only Leaf shinobi were supposed to know. It was peaceful out here, with nothing but the creatures and trees for company.

"You always were a crappy liar," she said, and Obito rolled his eyes.

"I'm not lying," he said, and Rin gave him a grin. "I _am_ glad you're here." He looked back at Sakura again, and this time she caught his eye. Nice jacket, he noted. Far too many pockets, but what shinobi would complain about that? "I'm still wondering why."

"For Sakura," Rin said, already knowing the words were perfunctory, and Obito gave her an unimpressed look. She laughed. "Okay, as bait? How else are you going to draw the old man out?"

"Gross," Obito grimaced, and Rin laughed again. "Plus, that's not how sensei thinks." He got a little more serious. "I think _he_ thinks I'll need some backup."

"Pfft." Rin made it clear how unlikely she thought that was. "Sensei's always had just about infinite faith in you, Obito. There's no way."

"Sure," Obito said. "How about this: what'd he tell _you_ the reason was?"

Their game was coming to an end, and Rin could feel it. She sobered up. "He told me to watch out for you guys," she said, and Obito frowned, crossing his arms. "He didn't tell me why, or what I was watching _for_."

"That doesn't make any sense," Obito said, and Rin shook her head.

"The only explanation is that he was worried about being too specific," she said, and Obito stiffened, a sudden understanding crashing down on him. "Who might overhear."

Obito slowed down as he processed what Rin had just said. Behind him, Naruto and Sakura noticed. They started catching up with him and Rin, and Naruto called out.

"Something up?" he asked, and Obito picked up the pace again, drawing back into the center of their triangular formation.

"All good!" he called back, and Naruto gave him a curious look and a nod. Sakura was just peering at him. They both knew something was up, Obito was sure, but Sakura was growing more and more frightening in her perceptive ability.

Why were they here, he thought, if sensei was worried about _that_? He fell silent, digesting everything Rin had told him.

' _A shinobi is one who sacrifices.'_

That wasn't something to consider, he thought. No matter how kind he was, sensei wouldn't hesitate to put his own son, or his son's teammates, in danger. Not if he thought the potential payoff would be worth it for the village.

Bait. A B-Rank. Jiraiya. Overhearing.

"Are we being followed?" he asked, and Rin shook her head.

"If we are, I couldn't tell," she said, and Obito grunted. That didn't mean anything by itself. There were plenty of means to pursue them without him or Rin noticing, no matter how careful they were. After all, a mouse rarely realized that a snake was after it.

If his suspicions were right, a headless snake would soon be after them all.

Obito's hands curled into fists.

"This really isn't what I wanted for a B-Rank," he said, and Rin shrugged.

"It's what sensei wanted," she said. Obito sighed and nodded. "And besides, maybe he's just overreacting. This could all go according to plan."

Obito laughed. "When's the last time sensei overreacted?" he asked. Rin pursed her lips, considering the question honestly.

"Been, uh…" she said, pausing. "Well, never."

"Yeah," Obito said, a little glum. "Never. If things get messy, you watch Sakura. I'll get Naruto."

"What about Sasuke?" Rin asked, looking forward at their vanguard, and Obito chuckled.

"He learned on our first C-Rank that sometimes you should just run away," he said, and Rin raised an eyebrow. "I hope he'll remember that lesson."

"He won't," Rin said. "He's too much like you."

"Yeah…" Obito shook his head. "Crap."

"Cheer up!" Rin demanded. "It's been forever since we went on a mission together. You're not allowed to be grumpy the whole time!" She looked so sincere; Obito felt his heart speed up a little. The way her smile tugged at the tattoos on her cheeks...

Obito suppressed the feeling and laughed, and they resumed their journey away from the village. But the silence just allowed his thoughts to creep back in.

Sensei trusted you with his son, and more, he thought.

You better not let him down.

They traveled for another hour and some before, to his surprise, Sakura drew closer to the both of them, contracting the triangle, and struck up a conversation with Rin. Eventually, Naruto joined them.

Before long, the conversation turned to him.

"How long have you known Obito, Rin-sensei?" Sakura asked. Obito gave her a inquisitive look at the question. She was the picture of innocence… and she clearly knew it, which meant she was anything but. Obito had never seen a sneaky side to Sakura before. She'd always been sincere and honest, painfully so. She'd even immediately told Naruto about the offer from Haku and the Akatsuki.

He wondered what could have possibly brought out that slyness in her.

"Oh, since we were kids," Rin said, and Obito felt a surge of horror when he realized she was wearing the same sly look. "He used to follow me around all the time, you know."

"Really?" Naruto asked, and Obito coughed. "That's really creepy, sensei," he said frankly, and the cough transformed into a gag.

"It wasn't like that!" Obito declared. Naruto laughed, clearly not believing him. "We were teammates, you know!"

"It wasn't like that," Rin confirmed, and Obito let out an internal sigh of relief. "He was just watching out for me. We had to watch out for each other, really. We were both chunin by the time we were your age."

"That's lucky," Naruto grumbled, but Sakura shook her head.

"It's not," she said, and once more Obito wondered just how much she knew that she didn't let on. "They had to fight in the Third War, remember?"

"Even genin fought in that war," Rin said, her tone even. "But because we were chunin, we were given more dangerous missions. That's true enough."

"Which one of you was the team leader?" Naruto asked a question he'd never raised before, and Obito gave Rin a look. Her shoulders slumped. Her smile shrunk.

"Kakashi Hatake," Obito said, and Naruto's smile faded as well. "Our teammate. He was a jonin before we even made chunin, and our team leader on missions."

"Oh." Naruto clearly didn't know what to say. "I didn't know." He thought it over. "I'm sorry."

"It's not something you should be sorry for, Naruto," Rin said. Sasuke had dropped back, Obito noticed; he was obviously eavesdropping on them. He gave his younger cousin a look.

' _Care to join us?'_

Sasuke shot back an amused look that carried just as obvious an answer. Obito shrugged.

' _Suit yourself.'_

"What was Kakashi like?" Sakura asked, and Rin cocked her head. "He was your guy's teammate, right? You must miss him."

"He was a genius," Obito said, surprised at how easy it was to say. "He could have whooped all you guys when he was ten years old."

"No way," Naruto said. "You're exaggerating."

"He's not," Rin said. "Kakashi was a once in a generation kind of guy. He made chunin when he was six, when we had all just graduated, and then jonin when he was your age. He invented his own elemental jutsu: the Chidori."

"Wait, you guys graduated when you were _six_?" Naruto asked, and Rin laughed, shaking her head.

"We were seven," she said, patting Obito's shoulder. He ignored the jolt that shot down his spine. "Kakashi was a year younger than us."

"Seven? That's still crazy," Naruto said.

"It was just before the war," Obito explained. He'd never considered this, but Naruto had no conception of what that time had been like. "They were pushing as many genin out as they could, especially promising ones. Both Rin and I showed aptitude in ninjutsu, so we were allowed to graduate early."

"Still nuts," Naruto said. "And he had his own jutsu? What was the Chidori? It sounds cool."

"It was a little like the Rasengan, actually," Obito said, drifting back to the past. Not a better time, if he was at all honest. "He probably took inspiration. It was a sheath of lightning around his hand. He used it like a spear: it could pierce through just about anything." Was he feeling nostalgia, or yearning for something that had never been? "He developed it to punch through all the hardcore defensive Earth jutsu that Stone had under its belt."

"Yeah," Rin laughed. "It was a great idea. Just one problem though."

Obito chuckled. "God, I'd almost forgotten."

"What?" Sakura asked, and Rin turned to her, still chuckling. "Was it too exhausting for him or something?"

"Not quite. I dunno exactly how it worked, but the lightning chakra sped him up," she said. "So he had a jutsu that could cut through anything…" She broke down laughing, not quite able to finish the sentence.

"But he couldn't see where he was going," Obito sniggered, on the edge of open laughter too. The bittersweet memory overwhelmed him. "He'd take off like a damn lightning bolt, his hand screaming with all the chakra, and not have a damn idea where his target was. He'd just destroy everything in the way until he landed a hit."

"He only needed the one though," Rin said. "That was a hell of one-hit kill."

"That sounds like an awesome jutsu!" Naruto's enthusiasm was infectious, as usual. "But… he didn't pass it on to anyone?"

"Maybe your dad, but I doubt it," Obito said. Rin nodded.

"Kakashi was a private kid," she said. "He was quiet, and didn't share anything. I doubt he gave anyone that jutsu." She scoffed. "He didn't even let anyone see his face."

"His face?" Sakura asked, and Obito brought his hand up, covering everything below his nose.

"He wore a mask, like this, all the time." He glanced at Rin. "Even when he was sleeping, or bathing. We checked."

"...why?" Naruto asked. Obito shrugged.

"Why'd we check, or…?"

Naruto laughed. "Why the mask?"

"Dunno," Obito said. "But the way he went about it, he probably would have worn that mask till the day he died." He paused, feeling a jab of pain in his chest. "Well… I guess he did."

Naruto went quiet, but Sakura seemed possessed of an insatiable curiosity. "What happened to him?" she asked, and then realized exactly what she said after a moment. "Sorry. I-"

"That's alright," Obito said, glancing at Rin for confirmation. Light coming through the canopy played across her face, and for a moment he couldn't breathe. "He saved us."

"I got grabbed by some ninja from Stone when we were on a mission near their borders," Rin said. "They interrogated me, but Obito and Kakashi showed up and saved me." She gave the boy a sour smile. "But the Iwa-nin was a sore loser: he dropped a whole cave on top of us before we could escape. Obito saved Kakashi, and got his arm broken for his trouble… and then Kakashi saved him, and got crushed."

Neither Naruto nor Sakura had anything to say to that. Instead, Sasuke spoke up from in front of them.

"You have his sword," he said, as calm as a shinobi should be. "The White Fang." Perceptive punk, Obito thought.

"He gave it to me as he was dying," Obito said. "Told me to kill as many ninja from Stone as I could." He narrowed his eyes. "So I did."

"That was the day he became Mangekyo no Obito," Rin said. "We didn't realize it till afterwards, but his Sharingan evolved when Kakashi died. That was the only reason either of us survived." She was looking oddly wistful now, and Obit marveled at how that day had completely changed both their lives. "There were at least twenty Stone ninja outside, and Obito killed every single one of them. I was in shock; I couldn't do anything." Obito remembered the feeling of his fingers shattering, a sword in his teeth. He didn't have any regrets.

Rin smiled at him. "But he was always like that. Before that day, and since then… he's always been a reliable guy."

Obito smiled back, the compliment washing over him like a warm wind, and noticed Sakura giving Rin an odd look.

"Twenty guys? For real?" Naruto asked, a little subdued. "That's…"

"It was them or us," Obito said. "I couldn't hesitate." He looked down at his student. "If someone killed Sasuke, would you?"

"No one's gonna kill Sasuke," Naruto said, and Obito left him with the thought, not wanting to pursue it further. Kakashi had been everything Sasuke was and more, and he'd died under a rock like anyone else. He was sure Naruto knew that too. "Anyway… are we almost there? What'd you call the place?"

"Tanzaku Gai," Obito said, pivoting off the subject with a gratifying amount of grace. "Jiraiya is _supposed_ to maintain several dead drops throughout the Land of Fire, and the one there is the nearest; he's always outside of the village, so that's the Hokage's way of keeping tabs on him."

"Why's he always out of Konoha?" Sakura asked, and Obito pondered how to approach the question.

"He has a lot of responsibilities." He decided to go with most of the truth. "And he prefers to work alone."

"He's one of the Sannin, but he prefers to work alone?" Sasuke asked, and Obito frowned.

"They were a legendary group, but they don't get along anymore," he said.

"Why's that?"

"That's their business," Rin said, and Naruto scoffed. "Anyway, we're going to check that drop first. If we're lucky, it'll set us on the right path."

"And if it doesn't?" Sakura asked.

"Then we check the next one," Obito grinned. "We'll either find him eventually, or the mission will fail."

"Don't want to fail a mission," Naruto grumbled.

"Then you better hope he's given us some indication of where to go!" Obito said cheerfully. "If Jiraiya wanted to go totally off the grid, he's gonna be gone, and we won't be able to do anything about it."

Naruto groaned but didn't contribute anything more, and they continued on through the forest. Obito tried to identify where the happiness in him was bubbling up from, but he couldn't quite manage.

Maybe, he thought, it was just as simple as being with his team, and with Rin. It had been a while since they'd taken a mission together. It was like Rin had said. It was best not to question the feeling.

Best to enjoy it while he could.

###

When they arrived at Tanzaku Gai, the sun was painting the horizon red. Team Seven and Rin slipped into the town like most shinobi did, completely innocuous in the flood of tourists, travelers, gamblers, and locals. The town was large, jumbled with buildings and streets that couldn't decide if they wanted to go straight, and surrounded by a tall wall that did nothing to keep anyone out.

"Whoa, they have a castle?" Naruto asked, pointing to the huge fortified citadel that stood at the center of the town, casting its shadow over everything inside the walls. He looked it up and down and let out an exaggerated whistle. "No wonder people come to see it, that's crazy."

"It's old," Obito said, and Sasuke snorted.

"Really?" he asked. Sakura couldn't help but grin at his tone. "You think?"

"It's from back during the Era of Warring Clans, you know." Obito gave them an unimpressed look. "Castles like this were the centers of power for local governments back then. They needed something that couldn't be knocked over by a wandering clan of shinobi, you know."

"But they don't build castles anymore," Sakura said, staring up at the huge stone edifice. It really was impressive; had the builders hired people who could manipulate chakra, or had they just used tools themselves? She could barely conceive of it. The castle had layers of walls and towers, like a multilayered origami folded out and pressed flat to reveal all its myriad complexities. It would be challenging to assault even with the ability to walk on walls.

"No." Obito gave her an amused look. "Nowadays it takes a lot more than a single clan to overthrow a government."

Sakura mused on that as Rin gave an exaggerated stretch, her arms twisting over her head. "So, we stopping here for the night?" she asked, looking around the crowded streets. "Seems like a nice enough place."

"Let's check the drop first," Obito said. "There probably won't be anything there; we'll find a place to stay after that." They wandered through the streets, and Sakura marveled at the atmosphere of the town. Everywhere she looked something interesting was happening; someone juggling flames, a card trick, some strange food she hadn't seen before. Tanzaku Gai wasn't like any other town she'd visited, neither small nor huge nor carefully curated. It was full of the dregs of every nation mingling with rich tourists and clever gamblers, and it created a kind of place she'd never imagined before.

"Naruto, don't." Sasuke grabbed his friend, keeping him from wandering off to try a card game. "It's rigged."

"Course it's rigged!" Naruto grinned. "I'm gonna rig it back."

"No rigging any games," Rin said. Obito gave her a thankful look. "Shinobi are already unpopular enough in places like this; no need to piss off the locals."

"Unpopular?" Naruto asked, but Sakura could see the truth of it. They drew stares everywhere they went in their obvious five-man formation; that, and their headbands. Tanzaku Gai was in the Land of Fire, and ninjas from Konoha were no doubt a common sight, but people still regarded them cautiously.

What had Obito said on their first C-Rank, so long ago? Ninjas were a sign of trouble? This town had clearly learned that lesson.

For some reason, that reminded her of the little container in her jacket. Sakura dug into one of her pockets, feeling around for it. Naruto gave her a curious look as she drew it out.

"Wassat?" he asked, tilting his head to get a better look, and Sakura told him the truth.

"I don't have a clue," she said, picking up her pace a little to draw up alongside Sasuke. She raised up the container, and he tilted his head, plucking it out of her hand. "It's from Hinata."

"Eh?" Naruto tried to pull up alongside Sasuke as well, and the other boy sped up, rapidly unwrapping the little note on top of the container. "Hey, what is it?!" Their speed kept increasing until Sasuke escalated, leaping up onto a nearby roof. Naruto followed him, the both of them approaching a full run. "Sasuke, c'mon!"

Sasuke fully unwrapped the note and Sakura saw his eyes flash red. Then, there was another flash: the paper crumbled to ash, and Sasuke came to a stop, Naruto almost slamming into his back.

"Really?" Naruto demanded, and Sasuke smirked. His Sharingan was active. "That's cheating!"

"You don't even know what it was," Sasuke pointed out, and Sakura leapt up as well to join them.

"It was a letter or something!" Naruto declared. Sasuke shrugged.

"Maybe it was just some paper," he said. Sakura raised an eyebrow, and he rolled his eyes. "Regardless, it's none of your business."

"What's in the box?" Sakura asked, and Sasuke flipped the container open to reveal some sort of cream.

"It's a balm," he said. "That's all."

"That's it?" Naruto asked, grabbing the box out of Sasuke's hand. He stuck an experimental finger into the cream, and then stuck the same finger in his mouth with a thoughtful expression. "Man, she always was a weirdo."

Sakura looked at the cream, and then up at Sasuke. It had definitely been a note, and he'd memorized it with his Sharingan before destroying it.

The pieces clicked in her mind immediately, and she smirked.

Maybe it was because of what she'd realized, or because Sakura didn't smirk very often, but she was able to see some of the color drain out of Sasuke's face in real time.

"Sasuke…" she said sweetly. Naruto gave her a confused look. "Do you have something to tell us?"

"Uh, Sakura-" Sasuke started to speak, but Obito called up at them from the street below before he could get beyond her name.

"Stop messing around!" their sensei said. "You're making a scene!" People were staring, it was true. But here, outside the village, Sakura found that she didn't care nearly as much what some random tourists thought of her.

Sasuke took the excuse in an instant, leaping back down to the street and falling in alongside Obito as if nothing had happened. Sakura lingered with Naruto on the roof for another moment.

"What?" Naruto asked, and Sakura giggled. "You don't think-?"

"Who knows?" Sakura asked, feeling some delightfully childish glee. "We'll just have to keep pestering him." They jumped down to join their comrades, and continued deeper into Tanzaku Gai while doing just that.

Their destination ended up being a dumpy motel close to the castle, the kind of place that could offer substandard service because of its prime location. Sasuke gave the cracked walls and faded paint a justifiably suspicious look as their sensei came to a stop. He put his hands on his hips.

"Yup, this is the place!" he declared, pushing through the front door. Its rusted hinges shrieked, and Sakura winced.

"This?" she asked, not sure what she'd been expecting.

"Hoping for something glamorous?" Rin asked with a laugh. "Believe it or not, this kind of place was always the Toad Sage's natural habitat."

Naruto stuck out his tongue. "Then he's got shitty taste, huh?"

"Hey, being a legendary ninja's got nothing to do with your taste," Rin pointed out, following Obito in. "But yeah, you're right about that." There was the tinny ring of a bell, and the shinobi went inside.

They found Obito at the front desk, waiting as his fingers drummed on the cheap and scarred wood. The bell he'd rung hardly looked better, the metal dinged in places. They waited for twenty seconds, with no one appearing.

"Crappy service too," Sasuke observed, and then someone appeared from the door behind the counter; a tall, fat man, with black hair and an unattractive smirk. His outfit was the best looking thing about the entire motel.

"Welcome, shinobi!" he said in a reedy voice. "Looking for a room?" He glanced around, taking in their composition, and smiled widely. "Or perhaps several?"

"Yeah, we're not really interested in that," Obito said, and the man's smile disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

"Figures," he grunted. "You ninja love to waste people's time. Well, what-?"

"Mostly, we're curious if the hot springs are cold this time of year," Obito said, and Sakura blinked as the nonsense sentence flipped an invisible switch in the fat man's demeanor. He straightened up; the fat instantly became muscle, the smirk calculating and critical. He almost looked like a different person, such was the change in posture and attitude.

"You've come at a good time, Lord Uchiha," he said, and this time Sakura could feel her whole team take a collective blink. Even the man's voice had changed to something deeper and more respectful. He nodded towards the door he'd come from. "If you would?"

Obito inclined his head and followed after the men, and Team Seven had no choice but to follow. The room beyond the front desk was much the same, dumpy and filled with old paper and older furniture. The man approached one of the corners and bent down, fiddling with a mechanism that Sakura couldn't see. A second later, a section of the floor smoothly swung up on invisible hinges, and the man grandly gestured.

"Everything you'll need is down there," he said with a slight bow. "The room is sealed; feel free to speak as you will."

"We appreciate it," Obito said, and he took a roll of nearly ten thousand Ryo from one of his pockets as casually as he would a knife. He tossed the cash to the man, who bowed once more and retreated back to the front of the motel.

"Bwuh?" Naruto asked, and Obito shook his head.

"Inside," he said, and they made their way down a narrow set of dark wooden stairs to the hidden room below. The room was nice, far nicer than the motel above. It was barely fifteen feet from wall to wall, and unerringly square. The walls were dominated by countless shelves and bookcases, and there was a neat steel desk in the center of the room, upon which were spread dozens of scrolls, pieces of paper, and books with broken spines. There were no electric lights: candles were placed everywhere, providing faint omnipresent illumination.

"What is this place?" Sasuke asked, and the door closed behind them.

"Jiraiya-sensei is the Sage of Toads," Obito-sensei said, approaching the desk. "But even now, he is Konoha's foremost spy master. There's probably hundreds of places just like this all across the Nations."

"Then that guy upstairs is one of his spies?" Sakura asked, and Obito shrugged.

"Well, if he was _his_ spy you'd hope he'd pay him," he said with a laugh. "When it comes to spying on shinobi and nations, you can't be that direct. Think of them more as gossiping acquaintances. He'll probably be telling someone else that we came by soon enough, after all."

"This seems a little much for some gossip," Rin said, raising an eyebrow, and Obito grinned and waved her off.

"Anyway," he said. "Let's see when the old man last dropped by." He started rummaging through the scrolls on the desk by some order only he could divine.

"Huh," he said, and started clearing the paper with some urgency. Sakura jogged over, trying to help her sensei. "What are the chances?"

There was a paper stuck to the desk, Sakura realized after a moment. There was a date on it, scrawled in a thick and heavy hand with ink that fit both descriptions: 2]10]60.

"Barely a week ago," Obito explained, but Sakura was more curious about the characters beneath the date. The others crowded around, including Rin, to get a look at the message.

W4 - T10 - II320613.

"Eh?" Sasuke asked rather intelligently. Sakura turned to her sensei, expecting him to say something, but he was totally silent, staring at the code.

"Sensei?" she asked, and Obito shook his head a little, resetting himself. He was frowning furiously. "What's wrong?"

"It's a code," he said.

"Duh," Naruto said. "What's it mean?"

"That, we need to do some research for," Obito said. He took his pack off and reached into it, coming out with a couple books.

"Oh!" Rin said with an evil grin. "I didn't know you were into those kinds of things, Obito." Sakura leaned over, getting a better look at the books. She couldn't help but blink at the titles. _Icha Icha Violence_ , _Innocence_ , _Island Paradise_ , _Desert Palm_ …

"They're not mine!" Obito protested. "This code's pretty simple, but it's also just an excuse for that guy to sell more of his damn books!" Behind him, Naruto and Sasuke were laughing. "Look, that thing means…" He rummaged through the books, putting the rest back in the pack and leaving one out. "Book three, _Icha Icha Innocence_."

"How'd you know that's book three?" Sasuke asked innocently, and Obito groaned.

"For the code!" he insisted. "It's an easy code if you understand it. Book three, page two-oh-six, line thirteen. If he was keeping it that easy, he must have been in a hurry; he would have wanted anyone who found this to be able to read it."

"Yeah," Naruto snickered, "anyone carrying around a library of dirty books."

"But what do the other things mean then?" Sakura asked as her sensei flipped through the little green book, searching for his page. "The letters and numbers?"

"I can answer that one," Rin said, and Team Seven shifted their attention to her and left their blushing sensei to himself. "Those are both intelligence codes for Konoha, just as simple. This whole thing was done in a rush… but I can see why." She crossed her arms, looking as serious as Sakura had ever seen her. "T10, that's Takigakure, the Village Hidden in the Waterfalls. It's a minor village to the north."

It was strange, Sakura thought, that all the minor villages she knew of shared their name with their nations. Takigakure was in the Land of Waterfalls, which bordered the Fire, Earth, and the Nation of Rain. It was about a day away, maybe less if they pushed themselves. Why did the Land of Waterfalls have a Hidden Village named after it, while Fire had the Leaf, Lightning Cloud, and so on? Just because they'd come first?

"And W4?" Sasuke asked, and Rin shifted, glancing at Obito. Their sensei looked up, his mouth set in a line, and nodded.

"That's Weasel," Rin said, and Sasuke cocked his head. "Another code, referring to Konoha's most infamous rogue ninja."

Sasuke's eyes went wide, and Rin nodded. "Yeah. Itachi Uchiha."

Sakura felt her chest collapse as she remembered the cold red eyes of Sasuke's brother. She could see her teammate trembling; Naruto put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, trying to keep him steady.

"What's the sentence, Obito?" Rin asked, and Obito snapped the book shut, tapping his finger on the spine anxiously.

"'She's hunting a real beast,'" he quoted, and Rin choked. Sakura looked back and forth between the two adults, not understanding their reaction.

"What?" she asked, and Naruto echoed her. Sasuke was too absorbed in his own world to say anything. "What's that mean?"

"It means we've got to go," Obito said. "We're not walking; we're using the Kamui. C'mon, link up."

"Seriously, at least tell us why we're in a hurry," Sasuke said, and Obito gave him a cold look.

"I'm taking you guys home," he said, and Naruto snarled. "Then, Rin and I are going to stop that bastard."

"Like hell!" Naruto declared, and Obito shook his head.

"It's not debatable," he said, the dim light of the candles reflecting off his Sharingan with an eerie red glow. "This is gonna be too dangerous for you guys."

"Itachi's not going to kill me," Sasuke said quietly. "That's not what he's interested in."

"Doesn't matter," Obito said, and Sakura felt something like the anger that had driven her to attack Gaara welling up inside her. She stepped forward, her heart thrumming.

"Sensei," she said. "The only way we can grow is missions like this." Obito gave her an uncomprehending look, and Sakura steeled her resolve. "I would never have been able to fight Gaara if we hadn't gone on that C-Rank. I might not even have been able to be a ninja. I didn't trust myself." She slammed her fist into her open palm. "But this time, we know what's coming. Itachi didn't hurt us too bad last time; he was obsessed with Sasuke. All of us together, we could definitely take him."

"Ha!" Rin laughed. "Well, she's right about something. Obito, if you're trying to draw Itachi out, Sasuke will be the perfect bait. You can't deny that."

Obito looked at all of them one by one, and Sakura saw a gradual change come over him. To her horror, she recognized it. She'd gone through it herself.

Her sensei was terrified, she thought. He'd been terrified all the time. For them, for himself? She couldn't tell. But as Sakura watched, as he stood there with his hand extended, Sharingan whirling, her sensei discarded his fear. He straightened up; his whole existence sharpened, like a knife too dangerous to touch.

"Okay," he said, locking eyes with Sasuke. Her teammate nodded. "You're sure?"

"I'm sure," Sasuke said, taking Obito's hand. Naruto did next, and then Rin, and finally Sakura. They stood there in a circle, and Sakura felt an unbelievable amount of chakra coursing through her sensei's hand, and so much and so heavy that it seemed for a second like they would all sink into the floor.

"'She's hunting a real beast,'" Rin said, looking around at all of them as the world distorted. "Guess you guys don't take any half-hearted missions, huh?"

"Takigakure is the only minor village to possess a Tailed Beast," Obito said, and Sakura sucked in a breath as the Kamui devoured them. "Itachi's after the Nanabi."

Then they left the candle-lit room behind, with nothing to mark their passage but some scattered scrolls.


	28. Penumbra

The Human Sacrifice

When Team Seven exited the Kamui, the sun had all but set: only a few wisps of red light crept over the horizon, casting the forest they'd appeared in in long, deep shadows. Sakura looked around; she had no idea where they were.

"Welcome to the Land of Waterfalls," Obito said, and Sakura felt a jolt at having crossed into another country for the first time in her life without any sort of fanfare. The Land of Waterfalls and Fire didn't seem too different. They did share a border, she thought. It was probably silly to think that things like the trees would change just because the country had.

' _The borders are artificial anyway, right? Waterfall's a minor village in a minor nation. It exists to provide a buffer.'_

Sakura ignored the cynical thought, turning to her teacher. "You know where Takigakure is, sensei?"

Obito shrugged. "I know where it isn't."

"Isn't that just a stupid way of saying you know where it is?" Naruto asked, and Obito smirked.

"Obito loves to sound smart," Rin said, and the smirk transformed into a protesting look. "But yeah, it is." She gestured around. "But with such a flashy entrance, their barrier team is gonna be on us any second. What're you thinking, Obito?"

"Quickest way in," Obito said with a shrug, and Rin laughed.

Barrier team? Sakura knew Konoha had a barrier, but nothing about it. It made sense that the other villages would have something similar, even a smaller one like Waterfall. How close had their sensei popped them out anyway?

"We can't afford to wait around," Sasuke said. He looked twitchy, and Sakura couldn't blame him. Obito laid an uncharacteristically heavy hand on his shoulder.

"Believe it or not, Sasuke, that's our best play right now," he said, and the younger Uchiha gave him an unbelieving look. "We're not gonna be able to outrun Itachi. Keep this in mind: we're going to be the ones playing defense here. That's one of the only reasons I'm willing to bring you along."

"VIP defense," Sasuke said eventually, and Obito nodded. "Even if we couldn't fight someone, we could yell real loud."

"That, and some other stuff," Obito said. Sakura's mouth twisted up. She didn't want to play defense. That wasn't at all why she'd pushed for them to continue the mission. "Now shut up. We're gonna have company in a second."

Sasuke went quiet, obviously listening for something. Sakura and Naruto did the same, trying to figure out what Obito had been talking about. So far as she could tell, they were alone. There were no sounds but the sounds of the forest passing from twilight into darkness, its nocturnal inhabitants coming out to live their lives, and no sights but the trees, bushes, grass, several small animals, and the distant rays of the vanishing sun.

Nevertheless, Obito and Rin both turned at something only they could hear, and Sakura followed their line of sight to find a new arrival. Sasuke had turned before her; she had to nudge Naruto to get him to do the same.

There was someone watching them from the trees: a woman with long brown hair and dull red eyes, wearing a deep blue cloak that covered her whole body. There was a hitai-ate on her forehead with a symbol Sakura didn't recognize, two jagged lines converging at an invisible point, like an downwards arrow without an end.

Were there others? Sakura looked around cautiously, but didn't find anyone else. They _were_ ninja though. Not seeing anyone was no indication of the truth. Her instincts were screaming at her that they were surrounded. The woman crossed her arms, her cloak shifting and revealing a flak jacket festooned with a comical amount of knives.

"Leaf, huh?" she said, and Obito raised his hands, revealing nothing. "What a coincidence."

"How ya doin?" Rin called up, and the woman snorted incredulously.

"How about you answer this first," she said, and Rin shrugged. "Why has Mangekyo no Obito suddenly appeared near our village, without so much as a polite request?"

"Sorry for intruding!" Obito said. "We were in a hurry. I'm looking for Jiraiya of the Sannin!"

The woman shifted, growing more guarded. "What makes you think he's here?"

Obito shrugged. "Just a hunch," he said, and the shinobi from Waterfall raised an eyebrow.

"You should leave, Uchiha," she said. "You're not welcome here."

"How about this," Obito said, a little more seriously. He crossed his arms, mirroring the woman. "You run back and ask your elders. See what they have to say; if they can entertain another guest or not."

The shinobi considered, and Sakura tensed, ready for a denial. But after a second, the woman disappeared without a sound. Obito uncrossed his arms with a grin. Rin gave him an unimpressed look.

"Hey, that's step one," he said.

"Is this how you do it every time?" she asked. "Just show up on the doorstep and ask to be let inside?"

"Well, mostly, yeah," Obito said, and Rin laughed. "It usually works. Sometimes there's some extra screaming."

"What did you mean by elders, sensei?" Sakura asked, and Obito gave her a grin.

"Good question, Sakura," he said, giving Naruto a pointed look. The boy frowned back at him. "Takigakure doesn't have a Kage, or any sort of single leader like a lot of the other villages. It's led by a council of elders. They're not necessarily old, but that's often the case, cause they're the most experienced ninja in the village. They vote on all the major decisions."

"Huh, that's neat," Sakura said, and the next moment she felt something shift. Neither of the adults seemed to care, though they had definitely taken notice as well. She looked over her shoulder to find another Takigakure shinobi, wearing the same blue cloak. This one was a man. No, a teenager, probably only a couple years older than her.

"Hey," she said, and the boy stared at her. "How many of you are there?" The boy coughed.

"I'm not answering that," he said quietly. Naruto laughed.

"Was that your team leader up there?" he asked, and the boy didn't respond. "Then there's probably one or two more of you, right? You get to patrol outside the village often? That's pretty neat."

The boy gave Naruto a strange look, and the Hokage's son cocked his head. "What, shy or something? We're just ninja, it's not like we're gonna bite you."

"I thought there were some ninja from Konoha who bit people," the shinobi said, and Naruto laughed.

"I mean, yeah, maybe. I think Kiba bit me once. But we're not like that. We're just looking for that Sannin. And-"

Sasuke placed his hand over his friend's mouth, and then withdrew it in obvious disgust when Naruto licked it. "Sorry, he's always like this," he said, and the boy gave them both an incredulous look. "What's your name?"

"I'm not telling you that either," the Takigakure shinobi said, looking them up and down with a blank face, and Sasuke shrugged.

"That's fair," he said. He was trying to be calm, Sakura could tell, but beneath the facade he was practically vibrating, and she was sure the foriegn shinobi could tell.

"Hey, leave him alone," Rin said with a grin. "His squad leader left him to watch over two Uchiha, he's probably a little jumpy."

Naruto and Sasuke settled down, and Sakura looked around, trying to make a game of spotting the boy's companions. She couldn't see anyone else, but she eventually settled on a position a little to the south; there was an occasional rustle from over there, too subtle and stationary to be an animal, but too loud to be an experienced shinobi. Probably another younger one, like the one watching them. Maybe it really had been a case of a team like there's stuck on patrol around the village. It was weird to think of other ninja having the same patterns and behavior, but of course made sense.

A couple minutes later, the older woman returned. She made noise on purpose this time, alerting them of her approach, and settled in the same tree she'd departed from.

"We're to escort you in," she said, and Obito gave her an appreciative smile. "Tor, Osaka."

The boy from Takigakure stepped forward, and another girl, around his age, appeared at his side. She was wearing a long blue cloak, just like both her companions, and had her light blue hair tied up in a short ponytail.

"They're guests now," the older shinobi said, and both of the teenagers nodded. "Show them the way. I'll continue the patrol."

Tor, the boy, gestured, and Obito motioned for the rest of them to follow him. They set off through the forest, Tor at the front and Osaka behind them.

"Nice to meet you," Sakura said, at the back of the line Team Seven and Rin had formed. "I'm Sakura."

"Eyes forward," the girl said, and Sakura frowned.

"Just trying to be friendly…" she muttered, looking forward and ignoring the girl. They trooped through the dark forest in silence for several minutes, as the trees grew thinner and the night deeper. Before long, Sakura's ears picked up a distant roar, a steady white noise that they gradually made their way towards.

Eventually the forest broke and the source of the noise was revealed. Sakura almost stopped in shock, and she watched Naruto do the same in front of her; Sasuke was the only one among them who didn't hesitate.

There was an enormous plateau rising out of the forest, incredibly sheer and completely unnatural. Looking up, Sakura was unable to discern where the wall of earth ended and the sky began: the only clue was the shine of distant stars. She didn't have a clue where the sides were either. The plateau extended to both the left and right as far as she could see. Countless waterfalls coursed down the side of the massive mound of earth in hundreds of different places, coating its sides in rushing water and keeping much of it from sight. The water had been the white noise, hundreds and hundreds of waterfalls ranging from trickles to vertical floods rushing down into a river that surrounded the whole plateau, an enormous natural moat.

The scale of it was more than Sakura could comprehend.

Naruto whistled. "Damn," he said. "That's super cool."

"You know, Waterfalls never been successfully invaded," Rin said conversationally. Osaka gave her a cold look. "This is definitely part of why."

"It's because we don't produce weak shinobi," the girl from Waterfall said, and Rin laughed.

"Could be that too," she said with a smile, and Tor led them forward across the river. They walked over the water as naturally as they would earth, and Sakura didn't think anything of it. The boy brought them to one of the larger waterfalls, the spray of cold water against Sakura's face getting more aggressive the closer they got.

The quiet boy walked right through the water, hundreds of pounds of pressure beating against his head and back for a second, and Obito and Rin followed after him without hesitation. Sasuke looked back at Sakura and Naruto, shrugged, and went after them.

"C'mon," Naruto said, forging ahead and immediately regretting it. "Shit! It's cold!"

Sakura passed through the waterfall, the frigid water slamming into her for just a second. Somehow, it actually relaxed her. Water was her real weapon. Being surrounded by it, even if it was freezing cold and beating down on her, made her feel at peace and utterly safe, if only for a second.

There wasn't a solid wall on the other side of the waterfall: instead, Team Seven found themselves in a narrow tunnel, just wide and tall enough for two people to walk side by side if they pressed themselves flush to the wall. The tunnel carried them forward and up, sometimes so steep that they had to walk vertically as only shinobi could. Occasionally, the walls were not earth and stone, but something rougher, almost like bark. Sakura couldn't tell; the narrow space was so utterly black that she could barely see Naruto just a foot in front of her. No light penetrated down here.

The tunnel had been created by jutsu, and there were probably others like it. It was no wonder they needed a guide; there was no way she or anyone else would have been able to find their way through this thing, with its pitch darkness and branching pathways, without a native showing them the way. And even if by some miracle they did find the way, they were so completely vulnerable here that it set her heart racing. Trapped in the dark and the earth like this, it would only take a single person with a jutsu like their sensei's earth collapsing technique, the one he'd used to bury that undead bear, to crush them without a chance of escape. Or someone with a water jutsu, flooding the tunnel and leaving them to drown, or a cascade of fire, or…

But nothing like that happened, and Sakura and the rest of her team climbed through the tunnels in a silence even more oppressive than the darkness for what seemed like an hour.

"Here," Tor eventually said from up front, and Sakura heard him brush against something. A wall crumbled; light poured in. It was faint, just moon and starlight that could barely illuminate the night, but after what they'd traveled through it was practically blinding.

Sakura blinked, her eyes adjusting as she and her team stepped back out into the open air. Somehow, in the course of that timeless travel, they'd reached the top of the plateau. It was just as stunning as the base had been.

"I thought I was gonna flip," Naruto said at her side, his tone frank, and Sakura blew out a relieved breath.

"Me too," she said, too entranced by the vista before them to look at him. This was Takigakure, and it was a beautiful place.

The village had three distinct features, all of which Sakura took in in an instant. The lake, the waterfalls, and the tree.

The first. The entire village was set above a tremendous lake that surrounded it on every side. Takigakure was much smaller than Konoha, which was to be expected. It was by no means _small_ though: the village probably housed at least a thousand people, maybe more. There were dozens of buildings of all shapes and sizes, most modest and made of wood, arrayed on a series of terraces. The terraces formed five concentric rings that led down to the shores of the lake, each more and more populated than the one above it, with five equally spaced main boulevards that traveled from the edges of the village up to its center. There were not many electric lights, and most of them were affixed to structures. The terraces almost looked like a ripple in motion, Sakura thought, carrying the village on its back.

The second. There were more waterfalls up here, on top of the plateau. Water poured down each of the terraces, hundreds of streams feeding down into the great lake from an unseen source. Many of those waterfalls fed through waterwheels, most of which were directly attached to houses, while others were left to travel freely. Were they generating power? Sakura couldn't imagine running electricity up to the top of the artificial plateau, so it seemed like the most natural solution. A natural solution at odds with the completely unnatural aspect of everything else about the village: Takigakure had been designed to exacting standards, the very earth ripped up to accommodate its creator's visions. Everything from the huge artificial plateau to the perfectly formed terraces with their artfully fed waterfalls screamed that out. This was the result of ambition and ninjutsu. Sakura had never seen anything like this done with chakra. It felt completely at odds with her vision of what shinobi were capable of.

This wasn't violence or destruction. It was beautiful.

The third. The most natural thing about the village, at odds with its artificiality and yet simultaneously so far beyond 'natural' that Sakura could only gape. The tree.

Calling it a 'tree' was like calling a tiger 'a cat.' Technically correct, but laughably incapable of bringing across what was being described. The tree was big. Really big. Really really big. It was almost a hundred feet wide, with protruding roots that were visible even at its base growing in every direction. Its trunk was thick and its bark gnarled, and it rose straight up like a sheer cliff of wood, shooting off into the sky like a spear and dwarfing the rest of the village. Over fifty feet up, it began sprouting equally huge branches that spiralled outward, covered in thick green leaves despite the cold February air. The branches grew thicker and thicker the higher up the tree they went, until they presented an untraceable tangle of wood and leaves, like a semi-solid ceiling hanging over the whole village.

Sakura craned her neck back, trying to take in the tree. How tall was it, she distantly thought. Six, seven hundred feet? Almost as tall as the Hokage's monument, she was sure. How could something like this grow on top of this huge artificial plateau? Its top must have been crowning nearly a kilometer into the sky.

"Keep moving." Osaka pushed her from behind, and Sakura stumbled forward, shooting the other girl a nasty glare. She looked around and found the rest of her team moving on as well, and fell in with them, trying to take in the whole village again and again. Even though it was late at night with the sun all but gone, the place was teaming with shinobi, and as Team Seven walked across the lake towards the terraces they began receiving strange looks. Mutters began following them.

When they reached the first ring, Sakura realized that she hadn't seen anyone who looked like a civilian. As far as they could see, _everyone_ in Takigakure was a ninja.

"Heading to the center?" Obito asked up ahead as they ascended the second terrace. Tor responded with a grunt.

"The Sannin is meeting with the elders," the quiet boy said. "They were all ecstatic to receive him; big fans of his books."

"Really," Rin asked flatly, and the boy looked back, his face just as flat. He didn't respond. Sakura looked around, too struck by her surroundings to speak. Her teammates were doing the same thing. Takigakure should have been simple and small, especially compared to their home, but there was something about the place that captured their attention. This was a home for shinobi, built solely by and for them, and none of them had seen anything like it.

At the center of the five main boulevards, nestled in the roots of the tree, there was a long squat building with a sharp triangular roof. It dominated most of the fifth terrace, and when they mounted the final steps Sakura realized that this was the source of the waterfalls. There was another, smaller lake that the longhouse sat atop, fed by an unseen source.

Osaka pulled ahead of them and gestured. "Inside."

"Our gratitude," Obito said with a sincere smile, and the girl snorted.

"Don't get any funny ideas," she said, sneering. "You're surrounded by the best ninja in the world."

They let that one go, watching as both their escorts descended back into the village; several other shinobi went over to them, no doubt with questions about the ninja in their midst.

"Cocky bastards…" Naruto muttered, and Rin patted him on the shoulder.

"Prove them wrong later," she said. She nodded at Obito, and he led them to the longhouse, gently opening the door Osaka had gestured at. The inside of the building was much like the outside, mostly wood and softly lit with most electricity and fire. It was dead silent.

They padded forward, unsure where to go, but Obito confidently stayed at the front and guided them deeper into the building. The longhouse was divided into two sections, Sakura quickly realized: the first was essentially an antechamber that ringed the whole building. The inner sanctum was divided from the rest by another set of doors, a wide double set with colorful tapestry covered in kanji draped down either side.

The soundproofing inside the room must have been outright magic, because the moment Obito gently pulled the door open a cacophony of screaming assaulted them.

"Idiocy!" someone shouted as Team Seven slipped in through the door, and Sakura jumped. There were six people in the room, all seated around a huge table apparently carved from raw bark: two women and six men, with the youngest being in her thirties and the most elderly man probably even older than the Third Hokage. All were distinguished and powerful looking, lifelong shinobi at a single glance; one of the woman's hair was festooned with dozens of bells, and one of the men had a scar running from the crown of his head straight down the middle of his face, like a dividing stripe of gnarled tissue. He was the one who was shouting. "Takigakure has never been invaded!"

If these people had been debating, that time had long since passed. They were descending into a full-bore screaming match. Sakura followed her sensei's gaze to the man sitting at the head of the table; Obito was looking past the yelling, focused on their target.

He was tall, taller than anyone else in the room. Even seated, he towered over them, and his broad shoulders and red haori over a brown tunic only emphasized his width. His hair was long and white, spilling over his shoulders in countless spikes and extending all the way to the floor. It was the same color as his beard, a full and barely controlled thing that stretched from ear to ear. Despite the pale hair and a few wrinkles, the man looked powerful and hearty; he emanated the same quiet confidence the Yondaime did, looking around a room filled with five other shouting shinobi without a hint of concern.

This was Jiraiya. Sakura was one-hundred percent sure of it. His right eye was covered by a simple black eyepatch. His left eye was warm and dark, and it calmly slid from one ninja to the next as they bickered, eventually settling on Sakura's sensei, looking him dead in the eyes.

The others in the room took notice of them, but none of them cared. They were too busy amongst themselves. Sakura's team slipped around the edge of the room, coming alongside the Toad Sage, who watched them come with a slight quirk of his lips. Not quite a smile, but certainly not a frown.

"Jiraiya-sensei," Obito said. To Sakura's shock, he dropped to one knee. "We've come to assist you."

The man laughed, and the room quieted down somewhat as the elders of Takigakure looked them over with more appraising eyes.

"I'll take you," the man said, his voice deep and full of mirth. He glanced at Rin with a grin. "And I'll _definitely_ take her. But what are your brats doing here?"

"We're here to help," Sasuke said, stepping forward, and the Toad Sage snorted.

"More foreign shinobi is not the solution," the woman with bells in her hair said, her voice melodic and cold. She leaned forward, settling both hands palm-down on the table. "Takigakure is more than capable of handling this. Your help is not welcome."

"That's just as foolish!" one of the men snapped; he was shorter than the others, with thick red hair and wide orange eyes. "Too prideful, too prideful Ayame!" He gave Obito a sly look. "Send an Uchiha to kill an Uchiha, what could be better?"

"Hrm." One of the older men with coal dark skin grunted. "It won't be that simple. Rogue ninja have been gathering; this will not be a case of a single ambition. We could have to endure a full invasion-"

"That _can't happen_!" the scarred man declared again. Sakura was amazed at how quickly the elders had dismissed them. The room was vibrating with their chakra. She could feel it pressing down on her like a nearly physical malice, making her bones ache. "Waterfall is impregnable!"

"Not if they have the right help!" the older woman declared. She was dressed in a very ornate rainbow kimono, riven with every color under the sun. "The grudge-!"

"This entire debate is ridiculous," the youngest man said with a sneer. He was wearing a blue vest and had two swords sheathed at his back, and as he spoke he pounded on the table with a clenched fist, leaving a dent in the bark, and jumped to his feet. "Why all this mess, for a single child? Throw her out! No power is worth this strife!"

"We could not let the Beast into another's hands!" the bell-woman, Ayame, yelled back. She leapt up as well, and the man laughed.

"Then kill her, and banish it!" he declared, and everyone in the room began yelling at him. He shouted back, raising his young voice above the rest. "What has that thing done, aside from bringing the eyes of greater powers to us?! Why maintain a weapon that only makes others consider you a threat?!"

" _To defend against any threat!_ " the scarred man screamed back, and the whole room became a madhouse. Sakura shrunk back against the wall, desperately glad that she was under their notice, and her teammates followed her, watching the proceedings with wide eyes. The elders were practically at each other's throats; the young man in blue was laughing in the scarred man's face. Sakura wasn't sure what the Hokage meeting with his advisors looked like, but she was certain it would never resemble _this_.

Silently, Jiraiya detached from the madness and made his way over to them. He was even taller standing up, so much that Sakura felt engulfed by his presence. He nearly had a foot on Obito, and had to be half again as heavy. He looked over them with his arms crossed and an unimpressed expression.

"Quite the sight, huh?" he said, leaning against the wall at Obito's side, and they watched the room together as the elders argued. "But who could blame them."

"They're frightened," Obito noted. Jiraiya nodded with, Sakura noticed with some amusement, a sage expression. "What's changed?"

"Itachi's hired some flotsam," the man said, and Sakura couldn't decide which conversation she should focus on; her sensei's, or the elders'. "No one's sure how many, but it's at least several dozen. Enough to cause this zoo." If any of the elders could hear him, they ignored his harsh words; they were too busy screaming at one another. Two of them seemed ready to come to blows.

"Rogue ninja?" Sasuke asked, and Jiraiya leaned off the wall to look at him with a cocked eyebrow. "That's…"

"Something to add?" Jiraiya asked. Sasuke's lips pressed into a firm line.

"I was gonna say that's not like him," he grumbled, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms. "But nothing is."

Sakura wondered what he meant while Rin stroked her chin. "That many, huh. He must have a silver tongue."

"Hardly," Jiraiya snorted. "They're just particularly desperate. It's been a bad year for ninja outside the villages; a couple different sources of employment dried up for them, you know. That Gato character in particular… he was a big time underworld dealer, and the Rain flipped over his rock just a couple months ago. Naturally all the ants scattered."

Gato? For some reason, that rang a bell, but Sakura couldn't remember where she'd heard the name before. And Rain? What had Rain done that would make rogue shinobi desperate enough to attack a minor village? She managed to discard the question and ask another instead.

"So, what are we going to do?" she said. Jiraiya shifted his attention to her. His gaze was intense, Sakura thought. There was so much in that one eye. For the first time since her fight with Gaara, she felt small and worthy of judgement.

"You said you were here to help," he said. Smirked. "So, you'll help as best you can."

"Make up your mind," Obito said mildly, and Jiraiya laughed.

"You've always been so quick to take people out of danger, Obito," he said, turning to face the man directly. As he did, one of the bells that had rested in Ayame's hair embedded in the wooden wall where his head had been; the woman had hurled it out in a frenzy and missed her intended target. The whole room went quiet as the elders realized what had nearly happened, but Jiraiya didn't acknowledge them, didn't miss a beat. "It'll do them some good to stick around."

"What do you mean 'best we can'?" Naruto whined. "We can handle ourselves!"

"And you will," Jiraiya said with a grin, crouching down and bringing his head level with Naruto's. "Naruto, right? It's good to officially meet you!"

"Officially?" Naruto asked, and Jiraiya wrinkled his nose.

"We'll talk later, promise," he said, rising and leaving behind a baffled Naruto. "Rin, could I ask you for a favor?"

"Depends on the favor," Rin said skeptically, and Jiraiya snorted.

"Shuffle em out of here. Obito, you stay," he said, and both Sakura's teammates protested. Rin rolled her eyes and shoved them towards the door, and Sakura followed them, feeling the eyes of the room on her. "We got some things to discuss."

Rin pushed them out of the room and shut the door behind them, and once more the sound of the argument within was completely shut out. It couldn't just be simple soundproofing, Sakura thought. That _had_ to be some sort of use of chakra. It was too stark not to be.

"C'mon!" Naruto protested as Rin gave him an unimpressed look. "Why can't we sit in?"

"Cause you have a big mouth," Rin said matter of factly. Sasuke snorted. "And cause it's none of your business anyway. We'll probably all get our role to play."

"Trust him, Naruto." Sasuke frowned. "Obito will-"

"How can _you_ be saying that?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke flinched.

"Naruto, it's okay." Sakura stepped in, trying to squash the brewing argument. "We should just-"

"Hey!" The sudden voice snapped all of their heads to the right, and Sakura found someone jogging down the corridor towards them. Another shinobi: she had a Takigakure headband wrapped around her right arm.

The girl made an immediate impression, Sakura thought. She had striking teal hair, lovingly braided, and vibrant orange eyes that lacked pupils, almost like the Byakugan. Her outfit was plain, but definitely unique: a short white skirt and a vest that left her stomach bare, along with sleeves that only covered her forearms. But more than any of that, it was the girl's expression that immediately captivated Sakura. She was smiling, so genuinely and so brightly that it almost hurt to look at, and there wasn't a hint of anything but joy in her eyes.

Sakura blinked, not quite understanding what she was seeing. The closest comparison she could draw to that feeling of open trust was Rock Lee, but even Lee still had that sense of cunning that all shinobi tried to carry close to their chest. This girl had none of that. She was sincerity itself.

She couldn't trust that. Haku had given her a similar feeling. Immediately, Sakura was on edge.

"What's up? Who are you guys? Are you from Konoha?!" the girl asked, and Sasuke and Naruto both crumbled into silence under the barrage of questions. She waved at Sakura over their shoulder, and Sakura gave her an insincere smile in return. "I'm Fuu!"

"Fuu!" Another ninja, an older man with short black hair and a soft purple turtleneck, came around the corner and stopped at the sight of the corridor filled with ninja. "The elders aren't to be disturbed."

"I'm not bothering them, Yoro!" the girl said with her perpetual smile. "Look, ninja from Konoha, like the Toad Sage! Are they here to help too?"

"Yeah, we're here to help!" Naruto declared. He stuck out his hand. "I'm Naruto Namikaze!"

Fuu took his hand with so much enthusiasm that Naruto almost jumped. "Wow, Namikaze?" she said, shaking Naruto's hand like a dog would a bone. Sakura raised an eyebrow: the girl clearly didn't have much experience with handshaking. "Are you related to the Hokage? That's cool!"

"He's my dad!" Naruto confirmed, drawing his hand back and shaking it out. Fuu apparently had an iron grip. "A toad asked us to come help out that geezer in there, so we came here."

"Oh, so you got sent all the way out of the village? That's also cool!" Fuu asked, practically glowing, and Naruto nodded proudly. Sakura shared a glance with Sasuke, catching his amused smirk. They both felt the same way, she thought. Naruto and Fuu were like two suns colliding, just producing more energy and getting louder by the second. "I never get to-!"

"Fuu," the other man, Yoro, said, and for a second Fuu froze, her smile cracking like plaster. The moment passed; her cheerful reality reasserted itself. "We should get going."

"Oh yeah, probably," Fuu said, her shoulders sagging.

"Maybe we could come with." Rin stepped forward with a cheerful tone. Yoro glanced at her, and then gave her a double-take.

"You're Rin Nohara," he said, like that fact alone was remarkable, and Rin grinned at him.

"That's me!" she said. Sakura looked back and forth between the two adults; Naruto and Fuu had already returned to babbling at each other, but she could see Sasuke was thinking the same thing she was once more. The man had known Rin on sight, and he looked… uneasy. Not nervous, certainly not scared, just on edge. It was another piece in the puzzle, like Rin's presence on the mission.

"Ooh, can they come?" Fuu asked. Yoro started to shake his head before she ran him over with another verbal barrage. The girl had a peculiar way of speaking that left people defenseless. "It's just to the safehouse, and where are they going to go anyway if we just leave them here? They'll just sit outside the room until the elders are done, that could take hours! They could get bored and then you'd have a bunch of bored foriegn ninja in the middle of the village, that could be really bad!"

Naruto stirred. "Hey, what-?"

"And besides, it's Rin Nohara right, isn't she some legendary kunoichi? I wanna talk to her, I'm not allowed to leave but I'm definitely allowed to talk to people right Yoro? I mean it's just-!"

"Okay!" Yoro surrendered, shaking his head and raising his hand. "Okay, they can come with us. Let's just get going, okay?"

"Cool!" Fuu exulted. "C'mon, let's go!"

She led the way out of the longhouse, and Sakura nudged Sasuke as they stepped into the brisk night air. "Safehouse?" she muttered, and Sasuke nodded.

"She's a VIP," he said, his face thoughtful. "Not allowed to leave the village either. Related to an elder?"

"Maybe," Sakura said doubtfully, something gnawing at her mind. The suspicion was present but unformed, like smoke in the dark.

###

It took nearly five minutes for the longhouse to return to something resembling calm after Obito's students left. The elders squabbled, and Obito watched.

"Fuu cannot be surrendered." That was Hashin, the old man with the face-wide scar. Obito saw a vision of what could have been in the other man's face; his own scar ached. "It is out of the question. Takigakure has weathered worse."

"Worse?" Ayame, the woman festooned with bells, sneered. "Not for decades. The Takigakure of the First War and the Takigakure of now are different creatures, Hashin. See the reality of the situation. What the village is _now_ has never faced something like Itachi Uchiha and whatever dregs he brings along with him. The danger-"

"Itachi is our problem," Jiraiya interrupted, effortlessly shifting the gravity of the room to him. He had done that constantly throughout, poking and prodding at the conversation just enough to keep it from turning back to hostilities. "That is why I am here, and why Obito is here. We will handle him. The legendary shinobi of Takigakure can surely crush the rest of the rogue ninja."

"Legendary?" The youngest elder, whom Obito had still not learned the name of, spoke up with a scoff. "Don't think you can worm your way in with flattery, you hack author."

"My!" Jiraiya said, putting a hand to his chest with a grin. "You've offended me! I was only acknowledging Waterfall's success."

"Watefall's success has come from secrecy and power," the oldest woman, Ku, said. "But our secrecy has vanished over time, leaving only our power." She leaned forward, steepling her hands and pinning Obito with a forceful look. "We are not a major village, and so that alone cannot be enough. We've long resisted becoming Leaf's ally, but that was out of stubbornness, not pragmatism."

"Ku!" Hashin barked. "That's-!"

"Foolish, yes yes," Ku said, waving him off with a tired expression. "Find another word, you old rat. Waterfall's pride has placed us in this situation." She shifted her attention to the young man in blue. "Though Eiji's solution is equally idiotic. Discarding the Bijuu would make us more attractive to some and less to others; our strength would lessen while our enemies would not. That is the inevitable fate of a minor village."

She wasn't wrong, Obito thought. Takigakure, Uzoshigakure, and Amegakure once upon a time had all proven the truth of minor villages being constant targets. They were used as battlegrounds between the major nations, and constantly considered an irritant by the Five Nations' governments. If the Nanabi was gone, someone like Itachi would no longer target the village, but plenty of others would.

But why was Itachi after the Nanabi anyway? It made no sense, and Jiraiya had confirmed earlier that he didn't know the Uchiha's motivation. Itachi had never been obsessed with power. He had survived for the last six years outside the villages without having to rely on something as crass as a Tailed Beast. Why now?

There had to be yet another actor here that Obito wasn't aware of. It was the only rational explanation for Itachi's behavior. But then, Itachi wasn't necessarily rational.

"Before the First War," he said slowly, and Jiraiya ceded the floor to him. "The First Hokage gifted Waterfall the Nanabi." Obito smiled. "If I recall correctly, because you had sent someone to assassinate him."

"Not us," Hashin grumbled. "The most foolish generation, and they paid for their mistakes."

"Regardless," Obito said with a wave, "Hashirama Senju saw that Taki lived in fear of the five new villages, and gifted them a Bijuu that had not been claimed to assuage those fears. The Nanabi is Hashirama's legacy, just like the Village Hidden in the Leaves." He narrowed his eyes. "So it's only natural we would do everything in our power to defend it."

"How sentimental," one of the elders snorted, and Obito glanced at him. He didn't need to activate the Sharingan for the man to flinch away from his gaze. Shinobi from Waterfall knew just as well as anyone that Obito's look could literally kill, even if they weren't aware of the terrible cost.

"Unless you intend to throw us off the plateau, you'll just have to accept that we're here to help," Jiraiya said with a genial grin. "How are you intending to keep Itachi out of the village?"

There was a pause, the elders shifting and looking at one another, and then, a clear moment of surrender. Ayame spoke, her bells tinkling.

"The barrier team will always be our first line of defense," she said. "It is constantly shifting-"

"Easy to see with the Sharingan, or any other doujutsu for that matter," Obito said, and the woman gave him a nasty look. What, did she not want him to be honest? "Itachi would be able to trivially avoid it. I assume climbing the plateau is not an option?"

"The Earth Defense Force is always monitoring the plateau," Eiji confirmed, leaning forward and resting his chin on his palm with a bored expression. "Any attempt to climb it would see you knocked off at best, crushed if you were unlucky."

"So the village's impregnable?" Jiraiya crossed his arms. "How impressive."

"No," Ku admitted. "No no, quite not the case. There would be two ways in." She pointed up, and then down. "By sky, bird, whatever you desired, or by the lake, the foundation, as you would put it."

Jiraiya flinched, and the woman gave him a sour smile. "The barrier watches both, but it is difficult for patrols to do so. Obvious reasons. The village cannot bury its lake, for they are one and the same, and the sky is everyone's, friend or foe."

"Well, Itachi can't fly," Obito said. "So that's out."

"Itachi is not alone. Ninja who can fly are rare but not nonexistent," Ayame pointed out. "We must consider all avenues."

"I will," Jiraiya said, fingers tapping against his shoulder. "Sage Mode will cover the gap."

Obito blinked, and the Waterfall elders took a collective breath as they realized what Jiraiya was offering them. It was one thing for the Toad Sage to turn up and offer his help, and completely another for him to put his ultimate technique on the table. Secrecy was power, as Ku had said.

"Sensei-," Obito started to ask, and Jiraiya shut him up with a glance.

"It's the perfect counter. My sensory range is not nearly so impressive as your barrier team," Jiraiya said, making eye contact with each elder, "but it's more than sufficient to cover the village. Your defenses will be the first line, as ever, and if they succeed we'll be all the happier for it. But if they're penetrated, even Itachi won't be able to evade my senjutsu. I'll track him down…" He pounded one huge fist into an open palm. "And crush him."

That could work, Obito distantly thought as the elders chattered excitedly. It was a simple plan, and that made it the most likely to succeed.

They stayed in that stifling room with its cracked wooden table for another half hour, speculating and talking strategy, until eventually the meeting dissolved. The elders said goodbye, rushing off to their own tasks, or perhaps bed, and Obito and Jiraiya found themselves outside, drinking in the brisk night air and staring out over the village they'd found themselves quite suddenly pledged to defend.

At least it _was_ defensible, Obito noted. They could have been given a lot worse.

"You had some nice lines in there, Obito," Jiraiya said after a minute or two of them enjoying the silence. He thumped Obito on the back with an appreciative grin, and the Uchiha grunted: even a friendly slap from the giant man hit with a ton of force. "Minato been feeding you some Hokage material?"

"Just thought about what he'd say." Obito told the truth. "Not sure if it was enough."

"It'll be enough," Jiraiya said. "They're desperate. They're putting on a tough face, but the idea that Itachi's gunning for their best weapon has got them terrified."

"And why?" Obito asked. Jiraiya shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense."

"We can make sense of it afterwards. My source has never been wrong before." Jiraiya scratched his chin. "There's one thing I didn't mention. I won't be able to stay in Sage Mode long."

"What do you mean? Why not just summon the head toads?"

"I've been trying. Someone's been intercepting the summons."

"What, in the midst of their summoning? That's…"

"Extremely advanced ninjutsu, sure. But that doesn't sound like Itachi, right?"

"No," Obito had to admit. Itachi was a lot of things, but he'd never been a summoning specialist, and certainly not the kind who was skilled enough to catch one before it could teleport to Jiraiya's side. Obito didn't know enough about summoning ninjutsu to even know how that was possible. That must have been why that Toad had arrived at Myoboku with no memories of its mission, he realized with a jolt. But the person most likely responsible for _that_ had to be Itachi.

"So there's a third party, probably connected to Itachi, keeping you from communicating with them," Obito muttered.

"Yup." Jiraiya almost sounded impressed. "Whoever it is must be incredibly knowledgeable, if they knew the secrets to my Sage Mode."

"I could go get them. With the Kamui," Obito said, and Jiraiya shook his head.

"You couldn't find your way to Myoboku, no matter the kind of directions I gave you. It's certainly sealed off from space-time jutsu like yours." He grinned. "And even if you did, the Toads might not listen to you. They can be picky like that."

"So, no summons, and limited senjutsu." Obito's face grew sour.

"Don't pout," Jiraiya laughed, and Obito straightened his face out. "It'll be more than enough. Not to mention, you brought Rin. I'm not worried."

"And my team?" Obito asked.

"They're tough. Everyone in that room could see that right away. They're real shinobi now." Jiraiya sat down, looking out over the village and the darkness beyond it, and Obito sank down next to him. "You must have done a great job with them. I'm impressed."

The compliment stung, and Obito began to shrink away from it. Jiraiya caught him, physically caught him by the collar. "Hey, don't be a punk. I already heard about the Chunin Exam. Some pretty incredible stuff."

"They're still not ready," Obito said, and Jiraiya let go of his collar.

"No one ever is," the Sage said with a chuckle. "That's what being a shinobi is." He gestured at his missing eye. "Even I wasn't ready, once or twice." He grew somber. "That's part of why I'm here you know."

"Your eye?" Obito asked dryly, and Jiraiya rolled his.

"You dolt. To improve relations with Waterfall. I don't want them to be just another subordinate to the Leaf, but…" Jiraiya leaned back on both arms. "Maybe another ally will cause less fighting, at least."

Obito didn't have anything to say to that, and so they sat quietly in the night, listening to the sound of the countless waterfalls and enjoying each other's company. Several minutes later, lights across the village began going out.

"This is as good a place as any," Jiraiya said, drawing his legs up as Obito glanced at him. "I'll start gathering natural energy."

"I appreciate this chance, you know," Obito said as his one-time teacher began concentrating. "To get revenge for my brother."

"Revenge is a fool's game, Obito," Jiraiya said, his voice quiet. He closed his eye. "Killing Itachi won't bring back anyone he's taken."

"It'll make me feel better about it," Obito pointed out. Jiraiya snorted. "Don't you think the same, about your eye?"

"There's a difference. That was a consequence I was willing to accept."

"They might have followed us here, you know," Obito said, and Jiraiya opened his eye. "Sensei's worried about that; that's why he sent Rin."

"Or to bait them out," Jiraiya said. Obito couldn't disagree.

The Sage smiled. It wasn't his normal friendly smile. It was all teeth.

"If they're stupid enough to come, let them. I won't let anyone harm this village."

Obito watched Jiraiya fall silent, going as still as a rock. He stood up.

"I'll be back," he said. "We'll wait out the night together. I'm just going to check on my team."

Jiraiya didn't say a word, and Obito strode off, a ghost vanishing into the ever-darkening night.

###

The safehouse ended up being much like the rest of the houses, if a little bigger and more obviously watched. Sakura felt countless eyes on them as her team and Fuu made their way into the building. The moment they passed the threshold, an electric shock traveled across her whole body; it wasn't an instinct, but the presence of an extremely powerful chakra that encircled the whole building.

"Wow," Naruto said. Fuu beamed at him. "That's a crazy strong barrier."

"Thanks!" she chirped. "I helped make it!"

"Really? You know Fuinjutsu?" Naruto asked, and Fuu shook her head. Sakura wondered why her escort hadn't stopped them before now. He clearly didn't approve of them talking to Fuu, but he refused to step in.

Maybe it was because of how obviously happy she was, but it could be something else. Something less obvious. Ninja, remember? Sakura tried to retrieve the cynicism that Fuu's demeanor had melted.

"Nah, that's way too complicated for me," Fuu said. "I just helped with the chakra! I have a lot, so-"

Yoro glanced at her, and once more Fuu went quiet prematurely. This time, Rin laughed.

"Oh c'mon," she said. "It's obvious. They'll need to know soon enough anyway."

"What?" Sakura asked. Rin cocked an eyebrow, but one of Sakura's teammates spoke up before the woman could say anything.

"She's a Jinchuriki, right?" Sasuke said, and Yoro and Fuu both gaped at him.

"How'd you know?" Fuu asked, her tone a little high, and Sasuke shrugged.

"I didn't. It was just a guess." He grinned. "Thanks for confirming it."

"Wait, _you're_ a Jinchuriki?" Naruto asked. Fuu nodded, and his face twisted up in confusion. "But you're not a weirdo."

"Thanks!" Fuu said. "I think! Why would I be a weirdo?"

"We met the Jinchuriki from the Hidden Sand at the Chunin Exams a couple weeks ago," Naruto said, his voice softer. What was he remembering? The way Gaara had stared up at him, all malice and no humanity? Or the scream he'd let out before Sakura had lost consciousness in the arena? "He was super creepy. I guess I just figured… everyone like that, would be like that."

"Huh!" Fuu led them deeper into the safehouse, through an antechamber and into a living quarter. It was spartan, with two couches and a couple chairs and not much else. The walls were covered with paintings and carvings of ninja Sakura didn't recognize, resplendent in ornate armor and vibrant flowing cloth. "Well, I'm not a creep! I promise."

"Alright," Naruto said, accepting it like it was just that easy.

"You met Gaara of the Desert?" Yoro asked, taking a seat. He looked around, taking in the three of them with an impressed expression on his face. "He's already got a reputation in the other nations. Ruthless little bastard. Did you fight him?"

"Nah, just Sakura," Naruto said, flopping onto one of the couches and lazily pointing at Sakura as she leaned up against the wall, her sword pressing into her side for a second before she adjusted it. "She kicked his ass though!"

"Really?" Yoro gave Sakura a doubting look, and she returned it with a flat stare. Even just a month ago, that look would have made her shake, but now, she could only feel a dull antipathy. Did it matter if he believed Naruto or not? Certainly not to her.

"Don't underestimate them for their age," Rin said from the corner of the room. Yoro's eyes slid over towards her, growing more uncertain. He was alone with four ninja from Konoha with the Jinchuriki of Waterfall, Sakura thought. He might look uncertain, but there's no way he would have been trusted with Fuu if he couldn't handle himself. "They're all smart little ninja." She stretched out, loosening her flak jacket. "You guys got anything to drink around here?"

"Here," Yoro said, lifting himself out the chair. "I'll see if we have anything."

Rin wandered out of the room after him, and Sakura saw through the window behind her that lights across the village were going out. Sasuke noticed too; he turned to Fuu.

"What's up with that?" he asked, gesturing to the lights, and Fuu cocked her head. She'd taken a seat on the floor, in between all of them. "Blackout protocol?"

"What?" Fuu asked, obviously puzzled. "No, that's every night." Her face brightened up. "Oh! I've heard that in the major villages you've got all the electricity you could want! Is that true? You don't need to turn off the lights at night?"

"Yeah?" Naruto said, sounding confused, and Fuu clapped her hands and giggled.

"That's so cool!" she said, rocking back and forth in her seated position. "What's that like, all the lights at night? It's gotta be so bright!"

"Yeah," Sakura said, feeling her guard dropping and not entirely happy about it. "The whole village is lit up all the time. It's never totally asleep."

"Wow…" Fu said, grinning at her. "That sounds amazing. I'd love to see it someday." Her eyes wandered down, focusing on Sakura's hip and the sword resting there. "I like your jacket. And you've got a sword too? That's super neat. Are you a swordswoman Sakura?"

"Oh yeah, she's amazing!" Naruto declared, and Fuu nodded her head enthusiastically, taking the words as gospel. "She can cover it with water and cut through anything! It's a crazy jutsu!"

"Can I see?!" Fuu said, and then laughed and reconsidered. "Wait, not inside the safehouse! Yoro would kill me! What about you guys?" She turned to Naruto, who tried to look humble and failed. "You're the Yondaime's son, you must know all sorts of amazing jutsu!"

"Well duh," Naruto said. "But I've been trying to learn more fuinjutsu lately. My mom is super good with it and I thought it would be cool."

"It would be!" Fuu declared. "Fuinjutsu is amazing! I mean, I wouldn't even be me if it weren't for it!" She laughed and rapped her fist against her stomach before scooting around to face Sasuke, leaning forwards with both palms on the floor. "And what about you? You're an Uchiha, right Sasuke? Do you have the Sharingan? Can I see?"

It was really quite amazing, Sakura thought, that this wasn't raising every alarm that could possibly begin blaring in her head. Fuu was outright asking them their strengths, one by one, but even if her life depended on it Sakura couldn't have detected any craftiness from the enthusiastic girl. She was just too damn sincere.

"I do, yeah," Sasuke said, but his eyes didn't light up with a distinct red glow. "But I'd rather not show it off."

"Sure! It's your clan's big secret, after all!" Fuu said with a never-fading smile.

"What about you?" Sakura asked. She was behind Fuu now, and instead of turning around the girl leaned back until she was looking at Sakura with her head craned all the way back, the two of them peering at each other's upside-down faces. "What kind of ninja are you, Fuu?"

"Oh, I like ninjutsu!" the girl grinned. "Being a Jinchuriki helps! I can breathe dust and stuff."

"Dust?" Naruto asked doubtfully, and Fuu giggled.

"Yeah, I mean it's scales, but that's gross so I try not to think about it." She popped to her feet, and to her credit Sakura didn't flinch back. "And stuff like this! Watch!"

Without further preamble and with such a sudden motion that Sakura and her teammates could barely process it, Fuu grew wings.

"Bwuh?" Naruto asked, and Fuu giggled. There were four of them, diaphanous and bright orange, and they fluttered slightly as she laughed.

Oh, Sakura thought. So that was why she left her top only covering her, well, top. It would be inconvenient for stuff like sudden wings to rip through it, right?

"Do they… work?" Sasuke asked, and Fuu pouted. "They look pretty small."

"Of course they work!" the Jinchuriki declared, promptly fluttering off the ground. The wings beat so fast that they almost became invisible, vibrating in the air and kicking up sizable gusts of wind. "Not so good inside though…"

"Fuu!" Yoro stuck his head around the corner and was shortly followed by Rin. She'd found a can of beer somewhere and was shamelessly guzzling it; another three cans hung from her other hand. "No flying inside! Also, no revealing village secrets to other villages! We've been over this!"

"Oh c'mon!" Fuu complained. "So they know I can fly, big deal! The Leaf's not our enemy, right?"

"The Leaf isn't your enemy, but it's not your friend either," Rin said, leaning against the wall and taking another sip of beer. "Your village's been careful to keep it that way too. You're a big part of that, you know."

"Yeah." For a second, Fuu's smile slipped. "But you're not gonna be my enemy, right?"

Rin shrugged. "Hope not."

"No way!" Naruto said, drawing the room's attention to himself. "We came all the way here to help you with Itachi, there's no way we'd be your enemy."

"Itachi Uchiha?" Fuu asked, and Naruto jerked back, surprised. "Is that who's after me? The elders wouldn't tell me!"

In the back of the room, Yoro facepalmed, groaning beneath his hands, and Rin laughed at him.

"My brother," Sasuke said. "But the mission we were given was just to find Jiraiya. The rest is just…" His hands curled into fists.

"You're Itachi's brother?" Fuu asked. "Wow, I heard he was some famous rogue ninja. I didn't know he had a brother. Isn't that a pretty crazy coincidence, that you'd end up here when he's coming after me?"

As Sasuke mulled that over, Sakura spoke up. "You don't seem too surprised," she said. Fuu smirked at her, a mischievous change in expression.

"People are always interested in the Nanabi." She shrugged. "Rogue ninja have been after me since I was little. Stone once too. It's not that weird."

"Is that why you follow her around?" Naruto asked Yoro, and Fuu answered for him.

"Yup, Yoro's my bodyguard! I have others, but he's the main one." She laughed. "He follows me everywhere, even to the bathroom!"

"Gross!" Naruto gave the man a cross look, and Yoro raised an eyebrow.

"It's not like that," he said, and Naruto's glare intensified.

"It's alright!" Fuu declared. "I'm one of the village's best weapons. They have to watch me."

Sakura stared at the cheerful girl, her mind boiling.

' _-shinobi were tools-'_

She felt furious on Fuu's behalf. She felt anger that the girl seemed incapable of feeling. She was just sitting there on the floor smiling, even as she cheerfully threw her humanity away. As she just accepted that it was normal to be followed at all hours of the day, to be looked at like a sword or a bomb instead of a human being.

Jinchuriki; the power of human sacrifice. Sakura suddenly and completely understood the meaning behind the word.

Was this how Gaara had felt? The thought struck her like a bolt of lightning, and Sakura felt a shiver run through her whole body. Was that why he'd been so inhuman? Had he been told for as long as he'd had that demon inside him that he was something less than human now? That didn't explain his obsession with killing Naruto… or maybe it did. Naruto had been something Gaara couldn't been. He was the son of Konoha's Yondaime, but he was a person, alive and vibrant in a way that was impossible for Gaara. His father had treated him like a dog, calling him to heel at the training ground.

' _He's a victim of circumstances beyond his control, y'know?'_

Sakura's heart flipped over. She'd hated Gaara, even now. If she'd met him again, she would have tried to kill him, without a doubt. But the lightning bolt dried the hate up, and the residue it left made her sick and shaky. She'd tried to cut out his heart because of what she'd thought he'd been, but now, looking at Fuu, she saw the other side of the coin.

Fuu had been told she was a knife for the village, and put on a smiling face. Maybe she even felt genuine pride. Gaara had broken. Just like a knife, the only thing he could do was destroy.

No, not like a knife. Like a shinobi. Sakura fell deeper into herself, remembering the night in the forest in increasing clarity. Why was she just angry for Fuu? All shinobi were just weapons, in the end. The only thing they could spread was violence: wasn't that the definition of a weapon? If she were angry for Fuu, wouldn't it be hypocritical not to also be angry for Naruto, for Sasuke, and even for herself? Was she a hypocrite?

"That's stupid!" Naruto declared, and Sakura blinked as the world snapped back into focus. "You're a person, not a weapon!"

"Eh?" Fuu asked, and Naruto stormed up to her. Yoro pushed himself up off the couch, and Rin off the wall. The room was suddenly charged, the two adults eyeing each other suspiciously.

"Whoa! No, bad Yoro!" Fuu said, running up to him and away from Naruto. "It's fine!"

"Take it back!" Naruto demanded, and Fuu blinked.

"I'm a Jinchuriki," she said. "You know what that means, right Naruto?"

"Who cares?" Naruto asked. Sakura watched him; he was shining with indignant energy. "Saying something like that-!"

"Something like what?" Obito popped out of thin air. "I heard yelling. Everything alright?"

The room froze, its momentum knocked off kilter by the new arrival. After a heartbeat, Rin stepped forward.

"Just the kids," she said, offering a beer. Obito gave it a dubious look, and the woman smirked and withdrew it. "We spooking the guards?"

"A little," he said, and Sakura remembered that the safehouse was surrounded by more Waterfall shinobi. Naruto had been pretty loud; he'd probably put them on alert. "Probably more, now that I'm in here," he continued.

"What's the plan, sensei?" Sasuke asked, the calmest voice in the room. Obito gave him an amused look.

"We're having a sleepover," he said sardonically, and Naruto whooped. "Unfortunately we forgot to pack any sleeping bags, so Waterfall will be putting us up."

"Oh, so you're staying!" Fuu said, turning to Yoro. "Can they stay here?"

"That's definitely not-" Yoro started to say, but a thoughtful look crept across his face. "Would that be alright?" he said, turning to Obito and Rin. They shared a look and a shrug.

Oh, duh, Sakura thought. If they were together with Fuu, Obito would have more than one reason to keep an eye on the safehouse. Yoro was banking on their sensei's protective instinct.

It was sneaky, but not so sneaky that everyone in the room didn't immediately understand the Waterfall shinobi's goal. That meant when Obito went along with it, there was a shared chuckle.

"Sure," he said. "If there's room, it'd be perfect for them to stay here."

Fuu practically exploded with excitement, throwing herself onto a protesting Yoro, and Obito beckoned them over. Team Seven and Rin fell into an impromptu ring.

"Listen," he said, his tone and face dead serious. "Jiraiya is gonna be watching the village. By all rights, you three won't see any shinobi at all when things come to a head. The elders think Itachi is going to make his move soon." His eyes flitted over to the corner. "Stay close to Fuu. No matter what, don't leave her side."

"You're leaving _us_ with the VIP?" Naruto asked, and then laughed at his own question. "I mean, duh, who better?"

"Not quite like that," Rin smirked. "Don't take this the wrong way, but most ways this plays out, the only way you three will see any action is if most of us are dead."

"Cheerful," Sasuke muttered, and Rin laughed.

"Waterfall is sealed up like the mother of all forts," she said. "The Toad Sage, Obito and I, and a couple hundred of the most badass shinobi on the planet are gonna be guarding every inch of it. If things pop off, you guys might hear some screaming. Be surprised if there's more than that."

"Are you going to get him?" Sasuke asked, and there wasn't any doubt about who he was talking about. Obito's lips pressed into a line.

"Itachi's gonna be my number one target," he said. "Jiraiya's too. The best way to keep the Jinchuriki and Waterfall safe is gonna be us hunting him down and killing him as quickly as possible. If he sticks his head out… I'll cut it off, Sasuke."

"Okay," Sasuke said quietly. He straightened up, his eyes cold. "If you have a shot… don't miss, okay?"

"I won't." Obito was just as quiet. The silence almost swallowed them all before Rin snorted.

"Boys," she said, rolling her eyes and taking another sip of beer. "You guys got it?"

"We've got it," Sakura said. "We won't leave her side."

There was more talking after that, but it passed by in a blur, and about a half hour later, Obito and Rin left together with Yoro following after them.

"None of you leave," he said, giving Fuu a particular look, and then the door closed behind him. Team Seven was left with no idea of what to do; they looked around at each other as Fuu vibrated with excitement.

"Well…" Naruto said after a second. "I'm kinda hungry. We skipped lunch. And dinner. Is there anything in here?"

"Oh sure!" Fuu chirped. "I'll show you!" She led them deeper into the house. Literally: they went down a hall and then set of stairs, descending into the earth. The stairs fed out into a huge storeroom, almost as big as the house. There wasn't any light down there; Sasuke snapped his fingers and a flame flickered into existence between them. Fuu gave him a grateful smile.

"Thanks!" she said, gesturing to the closest wall. There was a refrigerator there that ran the length of the room with huge, wide doors studded with iron bars. "There's probably some stuff in there; let's take a look!"

Naruto hauled the door open and revealed a veritable mountain of frozen food; meats, fish, fruits and vegetables, all covered in frost.

"So this stays on while the lights go off?" Sakura asked as Fuu rummaged through the fridge, gathering up an armful of ingredients.

"Yup!" she said, beaming at them. She was just so happy to be talking to people that it made Sakura's chest hurt. "It's like that for most of the village; we gotta save the power at night for the important stuff. Don't want food going bad!"

"Is there any heat?" Naruto said, rubbing his arms. "It's freezing down here."

"Heat?" Fuu asked. "Well, there's fireplaces. The safehouse doesn't have one though. Wait, do you guys have electric heat?!"

"Of course!" Naruto said. "You don't?"

"I don't think so!" Fuu said, looking confused. "That'd take so much power!" She beamed. "Now I wanna see Konoha even more."

"Well, maybe you can someday!" Naruto declared as they marched back up the stairs into the slightly warmer house. "After this, Waterfall will like the Leaf more, right? Maybe the elders would let you visit!"

"You really think so?" Fuu asked, and Naruto laughed.

"I've got no idea!" he said. "But it'd be cool, right?"

"Super cool!" Fuu said. "I should definitely ask after. Here, this way!"

She led them into the kitchen and laid down everything she'd gathered before grabbing some knives and other tools. Sakura knew a little about cooking, but clearly not as much as Fuu. She deboned several fish in seconds and tossed them into a large pan, starting to sear them on a gas stove-top, and then moved onto the vegetables. In less than a minute, a thick and colorful chop suey began taking shape.

"You can cook?" Sasuke asked, and Fuu gave him a funny look.

"You can't?" she asked, and Naruto cackled. She grew red, and Sakura couldn't help but giggle at the look. "I didn't mean it like that! I don't have much else to do, you know! It's just training otherwise, and that gets boring after a while! It's not like I can leave the village or anything."

"Makes perfect sense," Sakura said with a laugh. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

Fuu frowned as she cracked several eggs into another pan. "I, uh… I've never cooked with other people. I dunno what you guys would do."

Sakura didn't know how to respond to that, and while she hesitated Fuu moved from task to task with incredible efficiency. The kitchen filled up with delicious smelling steam, and after a couple minutes of small talk the meal was done.

"Okay!" Fuu laid out four plates on a small table in the corner, and Team Seven sank to their knees around it. "Sorry if it's bad!"

It wasn't. In fact, it was better than it had any right to be, considering that Fuu had barely used any seasoning. Maybe the ingredients were just high quality, or maybe it was because Sakura was starving, but the simple chop suey left her completely satisfied.

"Did you like it?" Fuu asked. They'd barely spoken while eating.

"It was fantastic," Sakura said with a smile, and Fuu smiled back so hard it almost broke her face. "We'll grab the dishes, okay?" She and her teammates cleared the table and washed the dishes, leaving them sparkling besides the kitchen sink. The water that came out of it was clear, but it smelled strongly of sulfur

"I'm really glad you liked it," Fuu said as they finished up. "I always thought…" She shifted, shuffling her feet.

"What?" Sasuke asked, picking up on the unusual behavior, and Fuu laughed.

"I thought if I could cook well, I might be able to make friends," she said. Sakura coughed, feeling like the simple and sad sentence had knocked the wind out of her.

"Is that what you want?" she asked, and Fuu grinned.

"Yeah. I don't think I have any real friends," she said. Sakura frowned. "I mean, as the Jinchuriki, that's not really my job. But I thought it would be a lot of fun, to have them." She laughed. "I don't even know what you'd do _with_ friends. It just sounds neat."

"That's fucked," Naruto said bluntly, and Sasuke nodded.

"That's a really bad word," Fuu said with wide eyes and a wide grin. "Does the Hokage let you talk like that all the time?"

"No, he gets whacked every time," Sasuke said matter of factly, and Fuu laughed. "But what's he gonna do if we're in another village?"

"Fuck, that's a good point!" Fuu said, and then covered her mouth. "Crap. I'm in my village."

"Well, how about when you come to Konoha you can swear, and when I come here I can swear," Naruto said with an emphatic nod, and Fuu gave him an awestruck look.

"That's a really good idea," she said quietly. "I'd really like going to the Leaf. And swearing."

"Imma make it happen," Naruto said. "I'll just keep bothering my dad. He won't be able to duck me forever."

"He can teleport," Sakura pointed out, and Naruto stuck out his tongue. "He _could_ probably avoid you forever if he wanted to."

"My mom wouldn't let him!" he declared. Sakura laughed and surrendered with a shrug.

"Does this mean we're friends?" Fuu asked, and Naruto looked at her like she was stupid.

"Of course!" he said, and Sakura heard an echo of her past in his voice. "You're cool, and you made us dinner! You're definitely our friend!"

Sakura found that she didn't mind being spoken for, and Sasuke seemed the same way. Fuu was so earnest that she couldn't help but like her. Even if the girl was a Jinchuriki…

And why would that matter anyway? She was just a person, even if she thought she was a weapon, even if there was a Bijuu inside her. Sakura crushed the thought into dust.

"That's…" Fuu blinked away a tear. "That's really nice. That's really nice of you to say." She stood there in the middle of the room, looking lost. "What do you… what do we do now? Is there like a special handshake or something?"

"Usually, friends just do stuff together," Sakura said. "What do you do around here when you aren't training or cooking, Fuu?"

Oh!" Fuu looked up. Yeah, she really was about to cry. Sakura should have felt more awkward at that, but she felt nothing but sympathy. "I really like to, uh, look at the sky."

"The sky?" Naruto asked. Fuu nodded. "But we're not allowed outside."

"There's a skylight," Fuu said with a little laugh. "I broke it a little, so it can open up. Do you wanna see?"

She led them up to the second floor of the house and into an attic; it was clean and well maintained, like the rest of the house, and the tang of the chakra barrier that surrounded the whole building was the strongest it had been since they'd first passed through it. Just like she'd said, in the corner of the attic there was a wide skylight, dominating most of the wall. The glass was foggy and filled with cracks, and Sakura could hardly see beyond it. Fuu crept forward and eased it open, letting in the cool night air and revealing the sky beyond, and Sakura's heart froze in her chest.

The entire night sky, an endless vista, spread out before them. Here on top of the plateau, with no electric lights, the night was the clearest Sakura had ever seen it in her life. Fuu eased down into a seated position, but Sakura barely took notice of her. There were more stars than she'd ever imagined existed, crowding the dark sky with millions and millions of pinpricks of distant light. The canopy of the tree extended out into some of the darkness and the light of the stars and moon filtered through its thick branches, creating countless paths of clear illumination that lanced through the dark and shone down on the village in a kaleidoscope of dim white light.

"Wow," she whispered, unable to say anything else. Fuu looked back at her with a smile.

"I always thought it was pretty," she said, gesturing to the endless canopy of stars that was spread out over the world like the most beautiful blanket in existence. "I'm glad you think so too."

There weren't any words, and there didn't need to be. Team Seven sat there with Fuu and stared out at the gorgeous night sky as midnight approached and the moon grew higher. Sakura drank in the dark and quiet, the happiest she'd been in her life to sit beside her team and a new friend, and the moment stretched into infinity.

But eventually, it snapped, and Sakura returned to her body in a moment of clarity as she realized just how cold and tired she was. It was surely past midnight now; Naruto was practically dozing on his back, eyes sliding open and closed as he fought off sleep.

"We should go to bed," she said quietly, not wanting to leave the view. "We need to sleep."

"Yeah," Fuu said, and she rose and closed the window. "Thanks for coming up here with me."

She turned, and her smile was brighter than the moon behind her.

"I'm really glad I met you guys."

Team Seven and Fuu went downstairs and went to bed, Naruto and Sasuke in one room and Fuu and Sakura in another, and slept until the sun struck the plateau.

###

**Hey, just wanted to stick an apology here, lol. Almost month long hiatus! What a slap in the face after being able to stick to a mostly weekly schedule for a decent stretch. This chapter seriously kicked my ass for both writing and personal reasons, but it's finally done, and I'm excited to get going again. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!**


	29. Antumbra

Inferno

In the pre-dawn light, Spotter deposited the rest of their team high in the great tree of Takigakure, which had a name they had not bothered to learn. Doll was the first to leap off their owl, and Venom the second. Spotter was the last, and as their feet stuck fast to the ancient bark of the tree the owl silently departed, doomed to fall apart in a welter of ink in the darkness beyond the village.

They glanced at each other. There was no need to speak, and no expressions to read behind the plain white masks that hid their faces. Communication was pointless, unless it was for the benefit of the mission. Spotter unslung their great bow, larger than their own body, and settled back against a nearby twisting branch, bracing it with an arm and a leg. They looked down at the village below.

It was only their steel discipline that kept their face from twisting in disgust beneath the mask. The whole village made their stomach turn.

Jiraiya the Toad Sage was down there, the most odious of the Sannin, the man who'd slain their master in defense of the Nation he'd unwittingly help create. He sat beneath the great tree, legs crossed, body still, heart barely beating, bubbling with sage chakra, straining to protect a place that was not his home. He was failing, Spotter could already see; his senjutsu senses could not reach far enough to detect their team up in the tree, or the rogue ninja converging on the village from every direction. Spotter's sight far outstripped it.

As they slowed their heart and drew an arrow, they searched for other targets, signaling to Venom and Doll with the slightest shift of their legs. It would start soon. They beckoned Doll over, and the man stood behind them, aligning their body and souls as they searched for a target.

A traitor to strike down. The thought sparked something that Spotter was loath to dwell on, but the notion would not leave them.

The whole village was about to become a festering boil of traitors, ready to burst.

Traitors: the children from Konoha, blissfully unconscious behind their barrier. Traitors: Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara, the hands of the greatest traitor of all, the peace-addled Yondaime. Traitors: that loathsome Itachi Uchiha, more like a worm than a man, slinking into the depths of Waterfall's enormous lake from below. Traitors: the dozens of rogue ninja Itachi had bribed, blackmailed, brainwashed, following the instructions of the traitor with five hearts with religious reverence, skipping through the sensor net around the village with consummate ease. Weapons without handles or purpose, with no choice but to cut anything and everything around them. No greater purpose than continued existence. They were no longer shinobi, just human trash that hadn't yet realized they were dead.

Spotter was sure that those below would call them just another traitor hiding behind a mask, but the roots of a tree could not betray it, only correct its course.

But they would die before they would see that truth.

They settled on the most natural target, and waited for chaos to engulf the world.

###

How do you destroy a hidden village?

Waterfall may be a minor village among greater players, but it is still a large town. It houses over eleven-hundred people. Of those thousand and some, four-hundred and sixty-four of them are shinobi. Of those shinobi, two-hundred and twelve of them are out on missions of various importance and drama on that cold and dark February morning, leaving two-hundred and fifty-two to defend Takigakure. It may seem illogical that, knowing the threat, Waterfall would not withdraw all its shinobi to defend the village, but doing so would be economic suicide. More than two hundred shinobi in the village is, by itself, extremely unusual. Usually, barely a hundred shinobi are within Waterfall at any given time, with the rest on constant missions.

This tirelessness is responsible for Waterfall's incredible reputation for excellence, and one of the secrets to its strength. For indeed, Waterfall is strong. It has survived honest attempts by Sand, Stone, and Mist to end its existence. What this can tell you is that numbers alone can't be enough to destroy a minor village, especially one like Waterfall.

Shinobi may be superhuman, but all but a few can fall prey to the same failures that prey on ordinary human soldiers. Lack of information, lack of leadership, morale. In the past, Waterfall has always repelled attacks by cutting the head off the snake, their high quality shinobi striking out from the security of the village and slaying leadership elements with remarkable efficiency and brutality. It's the same plan they intend to use for Itachi Uchiha's attack, and it's a well proven one.

Now, that doesn't mean numbers aren't an innate advantage, or that Takigakure will always hold the edge in quality: only that it has in the past. From that, you could divine that if you cannot simply bury it in bodies, as Uzushiogakure was, the best way to destroy Waterfall is from within. If Waterfall is collapsing inward, it cannot send out shinobi to hunt leadership elements. If its excellent shinobi are too busy putting out fires, if they lose the initiative, it is just as vulnerable as any other town.

The best way to destroy any village, minor or not, will always be from within. To know its secrets ahead of time, to understand the battlefield, and if possible, to have people already on the inside.

Itachi Uchiha must have known that, because that was how he went about things.

There was more to it than that, of course. When the attack on Waterfall begins in the minutes before dawn, Itachi is accompanied by thirty-two rogue ninja, a rather tremendous gathering, especially considering the rate at which Rain and other villages has been snapping them up over the last couple years. How could he have convinced such a collection of men and women who fought only for themselves to assault a minor village with Waterfall's reputation? No one knows, though some had suspicions that were nearly correct; the Sharingan was known for its hypnotic power, after all.

But put that aside. Regardless of how they'd been convinced, these ninja are going up against more than five times their numbers. Where does that boldness come from? What are they after?

What you have to understand is that all of these ninja have made names for themselves. They are all after money, or fame, or secret techniques, or the power of a trapped demon. They are all in it for themselves. All of them have accomplished something notable that could be a story in and of itself. All of them have trained their whole lives to kill.

And all but two of them will be dead within the next twenty minutes.

They swim up through the central lake, crawl up past the sensor nest. This would have been completely impossible for them normally. Were it not for one among them, all of the attackers would have been detected by the sensor net or the Earth Defense Force and swarmed or crushed alive.

But Waterfall's greatest traitor is among them, practically leading them, carrying with him all of Waterfall's secrets, including some that the village itself had forgotten in the decades since he'd been banished, and his grudge carries the rogue ninja up into the village without a word in edgewise from Waterfall's peerless defenses.

When they reach the top of the plateau, there is no dramatic announcement. No one pauses to take a breath. In the depths of the lake, Itachi Uchiha simply puts his hand together. He releases his chakra, and up above, twenty-six shinobi of Takigakure jerk up, eyelids fluttering, hands twitching.

To them, the village bursts into flames.

Moments later, reality mirrors their delusion.

This is the best way to destroy a minor village. To crush it from inside and out.

###

Sakura woke to the sound of explosions.

She rolled out of bed, still mostly unconscious, her sword already in hand. The whole safehouse shook once, twice, and then several more times all at once. Fuu was up before her, already at the window.

"The village!" Fuu cried, and Sakura shook her head. It was still mostly dark outside, with only faint traces of sunlight, but there was a hungry brightness coming through the window. Fires, casting violent light with abandon. Many fires. "What's happening?!"

Sakura had no idea, and another explosion shook her bones. She staggered to the window, trying to wake up. They were under attack. She needed to get it together. She gripped her sword, trying to focus herself. More than twenty buildings had exploded, gutted from within, spreading flames throughout the entire village. People were screaming, shinobi were running everywhere. Some were using water jutsu to put out the fire. She watched it all blankly, trying to understand how it had happened so quickly.

From the safehouse's elevated position in the fourth ring, Sakura could see almost half the village. That meant that when she saw the first ninja from Takigakure torn to shreds by a bladed chain, she was able to instantly understand even through her sleep-addled eyes that Waterfall was under attack.

" _Naruto_!" She left Fuu at the window, pounding out of the room and looking around wildly. "Sasuke!" Right on cue, Naruto came tumbling down the stairs to a stop in front of her, half-dressed and eyes wide. "The village-!"

"Is blowing up!" he interrupted, scrambling to his feet. "We gotta-!"

" _Stay here_ ," Sasuke said, leaping to the bottom of the staircase. Unlike Naruto, he didn't look like he'd just fallen out of bed in a panic. "Obito told us to stay put."

"He's right," Sakura said. Center yourself. Calm down. She gripped her sword. "We gotta stay by Fuu-"

There was a tremendous _crack_ , and Sakura's stomach flipped upside down as invisible weight vanished. She stumbled, and so did both her teammates. Naruto looked up with wide eyes.

"The barrier!" he shouted, and before the words had even fully left his mouth the kitchen wall exploded. Team Seven leapt back, and two figures barreled through the debris. Sakura blinked. They were both shinobi from Takigakure, an older man and younger woman she didn't recognize.

What? She couldn't even voice her confusion. Had they attacked the barrier? Turned it off? They'd certainly blown up the wall. Why? It didn't make any sense.

"Where's Fuu!?" the woman demanded, her eyes wild, pupils huge. Naruto stepped forward, and the woman's head jerked towards him. She bared her teeth. "What have you done with her?!"

"I'm here!" Fuu said, rushing through the doorway. Somehow, she was smiling. "It's okay!"

The woman took one look at Fuu, her eyes somehow growing wider. Sakura felt her teeth grind. She unconsciously drew her blade, water dancing on its edge.

" _You're not Fuu_!" the woman from Waterfall screamed, and faster than Sakura could follow she flashed through over a dozen hand-signs and threw a razor storm of wind right at Fuu. The man at her side rushed forward behind the wind, also intent on the jinchuriki.

Were they imposters, or rogue ninja in disguise? It didn't matter. Sakura stopped thinking and started swinging. Her blade rippled out. Sasuke was doing the same at her side, hurling a kunai without hesitation.

" _No!_ " Fuu struck out, not at the shinobi attacking her, but at Sakura's water blade. Her arms were suddenly covered in a thick yellow chitin. Sakura's eyes widened, and she tried to divert her attack, but it was too late. Her Flowing Water Blade, which could cut down a tree without resistance, crashed right into Fuu's right forearm.

The blade shattered, falling apart in a spray of water that soaked the entire room, and Sakura fell forward in shock. Sasuke's kunai wasn't stopped, and it struck the male ninja in the shoulder. The man howled, and then Fuu _moved_ , rushing the injured man as he turned towards Sasuke. She grew wings as she went, pushing herself faster, and struck the man in the back of the head so hard that he was unconscious before he hit the ground.

The woman let out the same mad howl and rushed the Jinchuriki, and Fuu turned to her, expressionless, and struck out. Three, four, five brutal punches that buried themselves deep in the woman's gut. She vomited and fell back, and Fuu's foot snapped out and crashed into her chin, snapping the woman's head back with a sick crack. She hit the ground and didn't rise.

Fuu slowly lowered her foot, standing there looking at both of the unconscious shinobi, and burst out crying.

"This isn't what I wanted!" she screamed at the downed ninja, tears streaming down her face. "I'm not meant to fight _you_!"

"Fuu," Sakura said, lowering her sword and stepping forward. "It's okay." She wasn't sure if that was true; she just wanted to calm the other girl down. "We'll be-"

_THUNK_. An arrow as long as Sakura's arm buried itself in the floor right in front of her, and she froze. Everyone in the room did, watching the quivering projectile without comprehension. Sakura looked up, the water around her sword violently vibrating. There was a hole in the roof, a patch of darkness in the ceiling. The arrow had penetrated straight through all three stories and nearly hit her.

Had it been luck, or-

Sakura blinked. Her eyes never opened back up.

Her body vanished. Her sword was gone. Her heartbeat disappeared.

Sakura would have screamed, but she had no mouth.

She was small. She was entirely enclosed in someone's hand, trapped and immobile.

Sakura had never been confined to the sixth sense that all shinobi had, the indefinable gravity of chakra that pressed down on them at all times. Unless you were a trained sensor, it was usually too subtle for even an experienced shinobi to rely on. The only time she'd been _forced_ to notice it was during her fight with Gaara. The chakra of a Tailed Beast burned with a pressure that couldn't be ignored.

Now, in that interminable moment after blinking while staring up into the darkness beyond the safehouse, Sakura had no sight, smell, hearing, taste, or touch. She only had her chakra, enclosed within and emanating from her spirit. She was suddenly defined by utter absence.

She panicked, unable to thrash and scream and all the worse for it. She didn't know where she was. She didn't know what was happening. She was being held. The chakra of the person holding her was so cold it felt as though her soul would be frostbitten.

It was satisfied. It was murderous.

Sakura was in danger, and there was nothing she could do.

As she descended into incoherent dreadful silence, Sakura had a last gasp of clarity before she was submerged in total darkness.

' _Where's your body?'_

###

As Naruto watched, the water around Sakura's sword suddenly splashed off. His teammate staggered, her gaze shooting down to the blade.

"Sakura?" he asked, and she looked up at him, eyes wide. "You-?"

"We have to go!" she yelled, the sudden shout making Naruto jump. "We're sitting ducks here!" She sheathed her sword and started sprinting for the door, blowing past Sasuke.

"Sakura!" he called, chasing after her. "We're supposed to stay here! With Fuu!"

"Go!" Fuu cried out, kneeling over one of the unconscious shinobi. "I'll be fine! Follow her!"

Sasuke cursed, following Sakura out the door, and Naruto found himself following after his teammates. They burst out into the burning village; everything was light and heat and confusion, and everywhere he looked people seemed to be fighting or ready to burst into violence. People were screaming; the fire lit the village up as though it were midday, but the light couldn't penetrate the predawn darkness that hung just meters above the flames.

"Sakura!" he shouted, but his teammate didn't look back. They were running through the wildfire, dodging through bodies living and dead. Nothing made sense. All he could focus on was Sakura's back, her long flowing hair. "Where are we going?"

"We have to find Obito!" she called back, and something pricked in the back of Naruto's head. "He'll tell us what to do!"

"He already did!" Naruto said, but his words were drowned out by a nearby scream. A man stumbled out of a nearby alley, steaming and covered in burns, and stopped Naruto and Sasuke in their tracks. He was wearing a Waterfall headband; as he turned towards them, eyes wide in confusion, a shuriken passed right through his throat and he fell to one knee, hands trying to stem the sudden explosion of blood.

Sakura kept running, apparently unaware of the commotion behind her.

A woman leapt out of the alley after the dying man and jammed a kunai up to the hilt into his spine; the man stiffened and fell, and the woman reared up, staring at Naruto and Sasuke.

"Konoha?" she said. "That's…"

She smiled. No joy, all malice. For some reason, that clarified things for Naruto. Sakura was long gone. She hadn't turned around. Maybe the arrow had panicked her. He just didn't know. Not much made sense right now. But right there, there was an enemy in front of him, and Sasuke at his side. He couldn't focus on more than that.

" _Perfect_!" the woman shouted. She launched herself forward, her bloody kunai in one hand and the other crackling with blue flames. She stabbed out, and Naruto ducked backwards, going horizontal and catching himself with one hand behind him.

"Sasuke!" he shouted, kicking up to try and buy himself some room. The woman sneered and thrust down at him with her burning hand, and Naruto had to turn his kick into a hasty roll. The hand burned a small crater in the concrete beneath him, and he kept rolling as Sasuke jumped in to attack. He came back to his feet just in time to watch the woman kick his friend away. Sasuke hit the wall and landed on all fours with a snarl.

"We can't waste time here!" he said. "Let's end this quickly, Naruto!"

"Ha!" the woman laughed, the kunai in her hand burning up with more blue fire and falling to pieces. "Adorable!" Her laughter grew angry. "And typical!"

She went for Sasuke first. He didn't try to fight back right away; instead he retreated, his Sharingan whirling as he watched the burning fists. The woman chased after him in a fury, punching craters out of everything in her way.

"Hold still!" she shouted, and Sasuke snarled back as he scrambled out of the way of another fist.

"Where's my brother?" he said, and the woman laughed.

"That Uchiha?" she said. "Do you miss him? Don't worry, I'll make sure to kill him too when I'm done with you!" The battle was waging on around them, but it felt like they were trapped in the eye of a storm in the middle of this street, insulated from the heat and screams.

Naruto focused, trying to look for an opening. The woman was fast, and her fists were deadly, but she was reckless and cocky.

Right. No time to waste. Three shadow clones rushed in, trying to swarm the woman. She turned her attention from Sasuke, punching one out of existence. Naruto flinched; the memory alone was incredibly painful. The other clones dogpiled her, and Naruto dropped back, putting his hands together.

"What're you thinking, you little shit?!" the rogue ninja howled, and then Sasuke kicked her in the back of the leg. She dropped to one knee screaming and attacking wildly, and Sasuke skipped back with a hiss as both Naruto's clones died, a couple centimeters of skin clearly burned off his shoulder.

He should have retreated again but instead, he swept in with the insane confidence that only his Sharingan could give him and caught her left arm in an iron grip, both his arms wrapping around the joint and immobilizing it. It was a suicidal move that left him completely defenseless.

" _Naruto_!" he shouted. The woman made to punch him in the face and burn a hole in his skull, but as she drew back her fist Naruto screamed and charged. He wasn't sure if it was him shouting or the sound of his jutsu, but the woman's head snapped towards him and keening Rasengan in his hand. Her eyes went wide in unmistakable fear.

Naruto thrust the Rasengan out like the world's deadliest handshake and the woman's remaining fist came down to meet him, trying to deflect the attack. Her flaming fist met the spiralling sphere, and for a second that didn't exist, stopped it dead in its tracks.

Then, Naruto's heart beat, time resumed, and the violent rotation of the Rasengan tore the woman's clenched fingers to pieces. Her hand was reduced to a stump. The rogue ninja shrieked in pain, and the Rasengan detonated from the pressure of her flaming chakra, sending Naruto tumbling backwards and badly wrenching his wrist. The shockwave traveled up her arm, grotesquely twisting it; the bones shattered, splintering through her thin purple jacket, and wrenched her whole torso sideways. The woman fell backwards, and Sasuke _twisted_.

There was a simultaneous pop and crack, and the woman's other arm dislocated at the shoulder and broke at the joint, swinging like a door with one hinge. The flame in her other hand guttered out and Sasuke kicked her away, and the rogue ninja hit the ground and rolled as though she were on fire. She shrieked, and it was the most painful sound Naruto had ever heard.

"Go!" Sasuke shouted, and they both continued down the street, sprinting through the chaos and leaving the crippled woman behind. Someone tried to stop them, a rogue ninja or one from Waterfall, Naruto couldn't tell, and they shoved the man out of the way. His hand stung; he looked down, and was shocked to find that his palm and all of his fingers were bright red, the top layer flaking off and revealing weeping raw skin beneath it. The woman had burned him even through the Rasengan. He clenched his fist, determined to ignore the pain, but he could already feel his hand tightening up, like what skin was left was a badly-fitted glove.

"Where's Sakura?" he shouted, and Sasuke shook his head.

"Gone. She was looking for Obito. But Naruto-" He paused, raising a hand, and the both of them came to a stop just in time to avoid getting trampled by two squads of Waterfall ninja who barreled down the ring yelling orders and firing water jutsu at a distant target. "I don't think that was Sakura."

"What?" Naruto asked, staring at him. "Of course it-"

He paused. The water had fallen off her sword. She'd left, even though Obito had told them to stay with Fuu. And she'd called Obito… just Obito, not Obito-sensei.

And...

Sakura wouldn't have left them to fight alone. Naruto felt a poisonous fury bubble up in his gut.

"You're right," he said. A light flickered on in his head; someone howled in pain somewhere close by, and almost derailed the thought. "It was right after that arrow came through the roof. That was when she got weird."

"We have to find her," Sasuke said, setting off again. Naruto took the lead this time, leaping up onto a roof and off the streets. The fire was growing wilder; he could no longer tell friend from foe. The only people he could trust were his team.

"And Obito," he said. "That's who she's after."

With a clear goal in sight, they hurled themselves into the chaos burning Waterfall to ash.

###

As Obito's arms tightened around the Takigakure ninja's neck, the man's hands beat a futile rhythm against them, scrabbling and trying to scratch through his steel armguards. He strained, tightening his grip: his legs were locked around the man's torso, holding him in place, and the maddened shinobi gagged and slammed him once again into the wall of the building to his back. The concrete cracked, but Obito didn't flinch.

"Go to sleep!" he grunted. The brainwashed man's movements were growing less frantic. Around both of them, the semi-circle of Waterfall shinobi pressed in, seven strong.

"Just give up, Keima!" one of the women shouted. "It's alright!"

"It's…" The man gasped, his eyes fluttering closed. Even a shinobi needed to breathe. "Burning… _down…_!"

He slumped, and Obito gingerly released him, making sure the man's head didn't smack to the stone floor. "Sorry," he said. "Even then, I couldn't break it."

The genjutsu snaring the crazed Waterfall shinobi was like nothing Obito had ever seen. The scale and strength of it was simply terrifying; more than two dozen of Waterfall's own ninja had turned against it, and they refused to leave the delusion no matter how much pain they were subject to, or how often their chakra was reset. It couldn't be anything but Itachi's work, but when had Itachi gotten _this_ strong?

"It's okay," the woman said. Her comrades bound the unconscious man up and spirited him away. "Can you help us with the next one?"

"He can't resist," Rin said, running a glowing hand over Obito's chest and back. He felt a bruise on one of his ribs disappear, fading away under Rin's gentle touch. He gave her a smile. "Let's go."

They set off once more, this time with only four ninja from Waterfall accompanying them. Obito looked around the village, his Sharingan picking out everything in perfect detail. The fires were spreading with more and more ferocity, but the shinobi of Waterfall were fighting back with impossible determination, using water and earth jutsu to keep the flames at bay. Half the village had been given up, transformed into a firebreak of horrifying scale. It was, thankfully, not the half that contained the safehouse.

Obito was confident his team was okay. They wouldn't have disobeyed his orders, and the barriers around the safehouse were strong. Even if it was breached, Team Seven had a Jinchuriki as their ally: Fuu would be able to keep them safe from anyone short of Itachi.

And so far, Itachi hadn't shown up. He was certainly here, though; he wouldn't have been able to trigger the mass genjutsu upon the Takigakure shinobi without being close by, and his black flames had appeared as well. To Obito, they had been what had started the battle. He and Jiraiya had watched as Takigakure's lake had begun boiling, letting off steam, and they'd looked within to find the Amaterasu flickering in all defiance of reality at the bottom.

Jiraiya had dove to the bottom of the lake without hesitation. It was no good to save the village, he'd said, if it just boiled to death after. Obito hadn't seen him since. That just made him more sure Itachi was nearby; he'd known one of them would have to take care of the Amaterasu. It had been a ploy to separate them, for sure.

It was that thought that made him change course. "Can you take the next?" he called, having to raise his voice over the crackle of flames. There had been a lull in the attack as both the rogue ninja, the brainwashed shinobi, and Waterfall's elite took stock of the situation, and Obito could feel it rushing to an end. "We're going to head to the safehouse!"

"The Jinchuriki?" the woman from Waterfall whose name Obito had not learned hesitated. "And your team. Go. We'll handle them." She called out as they changed direction. "Keep an eye out! Someone is hunting the elders!"

They split up, the Waterfall ninja making their way towards a madman weeping and flipping homes upside-down and burying them in earth, and Obito and Rin heading towards the upper ring.

"Don't worry," Rin called, and Obito looked back. There was sweat running down her cheek, past her tattoo, slipping down her neck; it made Obito's jaw lock up. That wasn't appropriate. He shook his head, and Rin gave him a funny look. "They're smart kids. They'll have stayed put."

They leapt through a wall of flames, the water of the third ring burning as if it were oil, and found Sakura on the other side.

Obito's brain short-circuited, and he stumbled when they landed. Sakura looked terrified; her sword was out, and her face was covered in ash. She was looking around, but there was no one else here; the battle had washed over this part of the village and left it a wasteland dotted with bodies and covered in puddles of blood and water that reflected the dancing flames.

Stupid, Obito. You're so goddamn stupid. They're barely thirteen. Why did you think that they wouldn't do anything stupid? That they'd just sit still? Had Naruto and Sasuke dragged her out into the fight? Where were they?

"Sakura!" he roared, and her head snapped towards him, relief flooding across it. "Over here!"

"Sensei!" she started running towards him, sword out.

"What were you thinking?!" he shouted, drawing closer. Rin was at his side. Her chakra was drawn in tight, vibrating, ready for a fight. Why? "I told you to stay put!"

"The safehouse was broken into!" Sakura screamed. "Someone was shooting at us! It wasn't safe!"

Broken into? Shooting at them? Then where were Naruto and Sasuke? They wouldn't have split up. Obito slowed down a fraction, his eyes narrowing at the impossibility. It was definitely Sakura. No illusion or disguise could fool his Sharingan. But something was wrong.

They were four feet apart now. Over Sakura's shoulder, Obito saw Naruto and Sasuke turn the corner, skidding past a sputtering building. He took a deep breath. It was okay. They were all alive.

Naruto's eyes went wide, and Obito blinked. His student threw his burned hand up, starting to scream.

There was a jolt. A flash of pain. The world slowed to a crawl, flames frozen, water like ice, Naruto's scream hanging in the air unheard.

Obito looked down, wondering why he was having a near death experience, and found Sakura's sword sinking into his chest. The phantom pressing ahead of the real blade created by his Sharingan's prediction only made it more surreal. He watched it with a detached academic fascination as it slid centimeter by centimeter in, passing through his vest with barely any resistance. It really was a fantastic sword. He felt it scrape past one of his ribs; the blow had been perfectly placed over his heart. In a blink, Sakura would have skewered his most vital organ. He would have bled out in less than a minute.

_Kamui_.

Obito breathed out, his body carried somewhere else, and Sakura passed through him, stumbling and swinging back. The blade passed through him once more, and Obito turned, reaching out. Sakura leapt back, as if to attack again, but instead, her sword came up to her own throat.

"You damn ghost," she hissed, and Obito's chest burned. The sword hadn't pierced his heart, he was sure, but the wound was deep and hurt like nothing else in the world. Because of its depth, or because it had come from Sakura's sword?

"You're not Sakura," Obito said, almost to himself, and whoever was wearing Sakura's body laughed.

"Brilliant," they said, the words full of a cruelty that Sakura wasn't capable of. "Take out your sword, Mangekyo no Obito. Kill yourself, and I might not kill your student." The hate filled eyes shifted to Rin. "You too, traitor. End your miserable life right here, or her head goes flying."

"That's a mind-body switch," Rin said calmly. Naruto and Sasuke were drawing closer. Rin and Obito had begun circling Sakura's body, and the person inside her was rotating as well, eyes darting back and forth. "You'd kill yourself as well."

"Not a good trade," Sakura's voice said, and her body shrugged. "But one I'd be willing to-"

Obito's eye burned, and Sakura's sword twisted out of existence. The world grew a little blurrier, and he felt a migraine coming on. Sakura's face twisted in hatred.

He leapt forward and brought Sakura down before she could claw out her own eyes, pinning the girl by all four limbs and leaning back as she tried to bite out his throat.

"I'm going to find you," he said, and the girl stilled, entranced by his Sharingan. "If you're smart, you'll start running now."

Sakura passed out, the genjutsu robbing her of consciousness, and Obito staggered back to his feet. He didn't have time to catch his breath.

"Obito! Above!" Sasuke shouted, and Obito looked up just in time to find an arrow hurtling right for his forehead. It passed through him without consequence, and his eyes narrowed. There were more coming, a half dozen. Not all of them were aimed at him. He ran through six hand signs, a boiling rage overcoming him.

' _Hosenka.'_

He spat a fireball that burst into a dozen individual jutsu, eating up the arrows without resistance and spreading yet more flames around the village. He looked to Rin, feeling his lips curling in disgust.

"They're in the tree," he said, and Rin cracked her knuckles.

"Then my mission's starting," she said, and Obito snarled.

"Too risky to go alone," he said. He whirled back towards his team. "Take Sakura. Go back to the safehouse. It's still the safest place in the village."

"The Kamui-" Sasuke started to say.

"The Kamui is going to be filled with all sorts of dangerous things in a minute," Obito said. "You'll be even worse off in there. Take her. Keep your heads down. _Go_."

Naruto picked up Sakura and both boys began running back the way they'd come. They wouldn't be safe, but nowhere would be right now. The pain was giving him clarity. Obito turned back to face the tree, and Rin offhandedly put a hand on his chest.

"Deep," she said casually as the wound stopped bleeding. "You could have died."

"If they were going to use Sakura like that, they needed to kill me in one shot," Obito said, and he began running. More arrows were coming: they thunked into the concrete around him, buried up to their shaft. They weren't trying to kill him, he thought. They were ignoring his students to strain his chakra by forcing him to maintain the Kamui. They knew exactly who they were after. He bared his teeth, a killing anger coursing through him.

" _I won't forgive them._ "

He and Rin sprinted towards the base of the tree passing through the two remaining rings. Three ninja took shots at them as they blew past, but Obito and Rin both ignored them: their focus was solely on the enemies above them now.

A moment later they reached the tree and began running straight up the side. As they did, more arrows rained down on them. Only one made contact, piercing straight through Rin's hand as she raised to block it. She didn't slow down, didn't lose a step: she broke the head off and ripped the shaft out in two fluid motions, the wound already closing.

"How many?" she asked, and Obito shook his head.

"Can't see them. At least two, probably a third. One archer, and the controller. They should still be out of commission-" Another set of arrows came, and Obito started. These ones were covered with something.

"Dodge!" he shouted, leaping off the tree to ricochet off a lower hanging branch, and Rin did the same. These arrows didn't just sink into the tree: as soon as they made contact the bark began rotting away, disintegrating before their eyes. Obito focused.

Insects, he realized. Insects so small that he could barely tell what they were. Only the intelligence with which they moved betrayed them. That meant…

"An Aburame, and a Yamanaka!" he said, leaping back to the tree. They were maybe a third of the way up now, and more arrows were sure to come soon. Vast swathes of bark had been stripped away below them; even if the Kamui kept him safe, he'd lose his footing if he didn't work to dodge those insect-covered arrows. "And the archer!"

"Got it!" Rin said. "I'll go around the back: see you at the top!"

Rin vanished out of sight behind the tree, and Obito focused on running. He could hear his heart beating in his ears. The village below him was an inferno, but the darkness around it was slowly being eaten away by the rising sun. More arrows came, melting away the tree, but they couldn't hope to slow him down.

A couple seconds later, he found his target. He could see two of them: one was the archer, still focused on him, waiting for him to slip up. Their bow was comically large. They were both wearing white cloaks and plain masks; weapons without ornamentation. Another arrow passed through his forehead. There was definitely a third, maybe more if they had someone to guard the mind-switcher. If they weren't here, they had probably gone around to deal with the Rin. Good plan on their part.

It wouldn't work.

He took a final leap, soaring up and straight through the tremendously thick branch they were perched upon. Both spun to watch him as he went through the branch. He reached up to grab another branch to slow himself down, and the archer nocked another arrow in her greatbow.

So they at least knew he had to release the entire jutsu to touch anything. That could be trouble. Obito feinted, but the archer didn't shoot. It was only when he actually reached out that they released.

His Sharingan told him the path of the arrow, and instead of piercing through his side it only skimmed him, leaving a red trail just below his flak vest. Obito swung around the branch, slamming into the bark and sticking there like a spider. There was a sudden detente. He stared down at the ninja and they up at him, neither willing to make the first move. A drop of his blood dripped down and struck the branch with a silent plop.

"You really are scum," he said, feeling his face twitching. "You really picked now to try and kill me? Why not help Waterfall?"

"Waterfall is not Konoha's ally," the archer said. It was a woman, and her voice was frostbite. "There is no point in assisting it."

"It could be." Obito grit his teeth. "This is why you ROOT morons always failed. You can't see a good opportunity right in front of you."

"Watch your words," the other one said, a man with long pale blond hair. The Yamanaka, if Obito was given to stereotyping. "And stay where you are." He raised up a little wooden doll in his hands, and Obito gave it an uncomprehending look. "Your student is still ours."

Obito looked at the doll, really looked at it. The little wooden idol was saturated in Sakura's chakra. As he watched, it shook slightly, a tremor from within. She was struggling, even without a body to struggle with.

He thought he might explode.

"Interesting technique," was what came out of his mouth. "So you place her in there, instead of just suppressing her."

"It makes breaking free impossible," the ROOT agent said. "Much like your situation." He removed a knife from his pack. "All damage will reflect to her, naturally."

"What, this again?" Obito said, and the archer nocked once more, her whole body bending with the bow. "Why would you kill her? She's as loyal as they come."

"No one who was truly loyal would be approached by Rain," the man said, his fist tightening around the knife at the doll's neck. "She's an obvious liability." Obito could imagine the man sneering behind his mask. "And you won't be able to pull the same trick twice, Uchiha."

Obito considered the situation, the smoke from the village below watering his eyes. What was left of ROOT clearly knew more about the Kamui than he was comfortable with. From the way they were acting, they were banking on him not being able to use both of his Mangekyo at the same time. He could put Sakura in the Kamui, without a doubt, but that would leave him vulnerable to an arrow through the skull.

You can protect yourself or you can protect others, Obito. That's how it's always been.

He needed help. He needed Rin. He needed to stall. But how to stall a bunch of amoral murderers? The smoke from the village below was making its way up in larger waves by the minute, trapped by the canopy and choking them all. Charge, Sakura died. Stay still, Sakura died. Unacceptable.

Only thing to do was give them what they wanted.

"Well, that sucks," he said. He dropped down off the branch, coming level with the enemy. Ten feet between them. Not close enough. The knife pressed in, resting against the doll. Obito sighed. "How would you prefer I kill myself?"

"Take out your sword." The Yamanaka repeated what he'd said below, and Obito complied. "Up through your jaw, into your brain. Do not damage your eyes. Do that, and we won't kill her."

"No way to know if you're telling the truth," Obito said mildly as he reached behind his back. The knife dug into the doll, scraping away a curl of wood, and he flinched. That would be a nasty cut.

"We are not liars," the archer said. "Do it."

He unsheathed the White Fang's blade, giving it a considerate look, and placed it against his own neck.

"Now-" the Yamanaka said, his grip relaxing just slightly.

Obito snarled, his eyes burning, and the man's elbow twisted out of existence. The doll fell, plunging through the smoke and darkness still clenched in the severed hand's grip. The forearm bounced when it hit the bark. The ROOT agent gasped, his blood soaking the branch, and stumbled forward.

But even as Obito's eye tore the man's arm off, the archer released her shot. The White Fang flashed up, cleaving a silver trace through the smoke. The blade knocked the arrow off course, but not far enough. Instead of taking Obito through the heart, it pierced clean through his shoulder, punching right out the other side with a meaty _THUNK_. Obito tumbled backwards, holding back a scream as the shaft jostled against the branch.

He rolled to the side. His arm didn't matter: Sakura did. He and the Yamanaka raced for the doll lying between them, two men with one arm scrambling towards one another. He was the first to reach it, but as his hand wrapped around the doll, another arrow blasted right through his bicep, pinning his arm to the tree.

Obito yelped, and the Yamanaka kicked him in the face. The blow passed through him, and he tumbled back, free of the arrow in his arm. His shoulder was still incapacitated, but Sakura was at least safe. Safe as she could be trapped in a tiny wooden doll, anyway. Another arrow followed him, looking for an opening and finding none. Obito scrambled back to his feet with a laugh.

"Gotcha!" he yelled, and then the branch beneath his feet collapsed as an arrow tore through it. He fell with a yelp, reaching out before he realized that his only working hand was holding Sakura. He almost smashed her against the tree, barely managing to catch himself by sticking his knuckles to what was left of the bark. He looked down, watching his sword fall into the village, a silver streak twirling hundreds of feet away into the fire below.

The whole tree shook, leaves and sticks raining down on the both of them. The ROOT agents looked up, and so did Obito. There was a sudden hole in the canopy.

Rin, covered in blood and backlit by the setting moon, was perhaps the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. His teammate flew through the air, landing about thirty feet away, and as she did the third ROOT agent appeared as well. The man was gasping; his mask had been torn off, revealing yet another face covering under it that concealed everything but his chin.

"Venom!" the Yamanaka shouted, and the man threw out his hand.

"Get back!" he yelled, and Rin launched herself forward. "She-!"

_'Has a hangover,'_ Obito thought, and then Rin punched. Her fist made contact with the branch beneath the man's feet, and the whole thing exploded. One moment it was a branch thicker than most trees, and the next it was nothing but splinters; the ROOT agent was sent hurling away, slamming hard into a brace of spiraling leaves and spitting up blood.

Obito grinned, trying to haul himself up.

The Aburame wasn't done, not nearly. Even as he groaned and struggled back to his feet, he pulled his shirt off, revealing crawling purple skin beneath it. More insects, Obito was sure: the man was coated in them, like venomous armor. He ran forward, trying to make contact with Rin. His teammate snarled and leapt away. Whatever the man touched corroded away into nothing in moments. Even with her enormous strength, Rin was at a disadvantage.

"Obito!" she called.

"Little busy!" he called back as the archer dropped their bow, charging straight at him. He let her first attack sail right through his chest, and then struck out with a counterkick to her kidney. The blow landed true, but the woman happily took it. The second it landed, burying itself deep in her side, the Yamanaka came from the side with his knife, ignoring his missing arm. Obito barely avoided the counterattack that would have torn a hole in his throat.

With both arms, with less holes in his body, this wouldn't have been a challenge. But Obito was nowhere close to one-hundred percent, and Sakura was keeping his remaining hand occupied. He fell back, but both ROOT agents pursued him without mercy, attacking constantly.

His chakra wouldn't last at this rate. Obito struck back, trying to knock the archer unconscious with a high kick. The kick landed, snapping the woman's head back so hard Obito heard something crack, but she struck back with the same unerring accuracy of her arrows at the same moment, punching up into the meat of his thigh.

It was a light strike, not even enough to throw him off balance, and yet Obito's whole right leg suddenly became dead weight. He lost all control of it, and almost fell as he tried to right himself. The woman fell onto her back, her mask cracked down the middle and blood running down her chin.

What? How? He limped back, unable to escape, feeling his chakra drain even faster. Two of his tenketsu had been blasted open; his chakra was pouring out of his leg like blood from an open wound.

A jutsu? No, he was an idiot. The woman had been a perfect shot, able to track him across the village and up the tree. She'd been able to read him like an open book the whole time, always striking just when the Kamui dropped.

The only explanation was Gentle Fist.

An Aburame, a Yamanaka, and a Hyuuga. He and Jiraiya had merited an impressive kill team. It was almost flattering.

He limped back, and the archer shouted as she shakily rolled to her feet. "Venom! He's slow; do it now!"

The Aburame above them grunted, leaping away from Rin. She made to follow, but the man slammed his hands down into the tree below him. He was nearly at the top now, just a couple feet from the crown.

A jutsu formula spiraled out from his hands, and Obito's eyes went wide. They'd sprinted right up into the enemy's trap.

The top of the tree split open like a grotesque egg with a sick retching sound, and an uncountable number of the microscopic insects the Aburame was covered in spilled out in a purple flood.

They'd been nesting there, Obito thought, his heart overcome with dread. They'd been grown with both the man's chakra and the tree for sustenance: he'd seen other Aburame use similar techniques, but nothing on this scale. The insects poured down in a great tide, blocking out the starlight, and Obito dropped, launching himself down the tree with one leg to buy himself some space. He could Kamui through, but what about Rin? What about the village? Fire below, and insects above: the center of Waterfall would be completely annihilated if the flood of disintegrating insects hit it.

The other two ROOT agents were chasing him, apparently suicidal. He had no idea where the third one had gone, or Rin. He could feel the Kamui fluttering; between the fight and the Hyuuga's draining technique he was quickly running dry, like an animal cut and left to bleed.

The Hyuuga struck at his back and he ducked to ignore her killing hands, instincts screaming at him. He spun, trying to kick her off the tree. His foot struck her in the hand, crushing several of her fingers, but the Yamanaka was already there. He stabbed forward, putting all his weight behind the blow. The Kamui flickered, and the knife went into Obito's forearm, barely missing Sakura's doll. His hand went slack, and the Yamanaka released the knife and caught the doll as it fell.

"Gotcha," the man hissed. He and the woman leapt off the tree, but before they could fall to their death the Hyuuga removed a book from her pack. Her mask had continued to crack from the force of Obito's blow, further fragmenting as blood ran down her face. She scrawled in the book with her own blood, and something dark and red erupted out of it. It had wings, and it caught both the falling ROOT agents, retreating in the dark.

Obito choked. Sakura was gone. They were keeping her as a hostage. His chakra crackled around him, coalescing into a dark orange shadow. It felt like his head would split open, but he only had one option now.

" _Obito_!" Rin landed next to him, panting and bleeding from the shoulder. Obito jerked towards her, the gathering chakra around him fluttering, and she slapped something in his hand. He looked down at it. His heart restarted, a furnace that filled his whole body with fire at once.

The insects were still racing down at them, barely fifteen feet away now. Rin punched out at the tree beneath their own feet, once, twice. Her monstrous blows blew enormous craters in the trunk; the tree shuddered. Obito kicked as well, adding his meager force to her blows.

Whether by coincidence or because of that tiny bit of help, the top sixty feet or so of the tree began tipping, swinging in an arc away from them with a tremendous sound of cracking bark and whooshing air. Obito saw the Aburame now: he was still up there, in amongst his insects.

" _FUCK OFF!"_ Rin screamed, and she kicked out at the tree with both feet, bracing herself with both hands between the severed trunk and the toppling tip.

There was a deep _crack_ as the tree gave up. Everything above them exploded away, over fifty feet of decaying wood shooting off towards the horizon like a shot from a bow. It carried the Aburame and his deadly payload with it; some of microscopic insects rained down on Obito and Rin, eating undetectable holes in their clothes and skin. It was painful, but not nearly enough to kill them.

As Rin kicked, Obito threw. He hurled the kunai that Rin had thrust into his hand as hard as he could directly at the blood-bird the Hyuuga had summoned. The woman was ready for it; she was already reaching back to draw one of her last arrows, but her crushed fingers fumbled. The shaft slipped and she had to catch it with her chakra, and by then the kunai was too close.

It missed, soaring past the Yamanaka's head by more than a foot. The man flinched away, swinging out instinctively with his missing arm. It fell short. A kunai missing you by more than a foot was usually nothing to worry about.

But this kunai had two prongs.

One second, the Yamanaka was alive, breathing heavily, blood still dripping from his forearm and mixing with the bird, remaining hand tightening around Sakura's doll in a last bid to crush it.

Then he was dead, his skull pierced by the knife.

The Hyuuga had commendable reflexes, and abandoned her ally without hesitation. She fell off the bird in the same instant he died, not even bothering to jump. Her haste wasn't quite enough; falling just meant that instead of being decapitated, her throat was only deeply cut. She was still moving as she fell, her blood flying out in a crescent arc, red as the rising sun.

The bird began evaporating; Sakura's doll fell. Obito didn't care. The second the Yamanaka had died, Sakura's chakra had vanished out of the doll. His jutsu had gone with him. Even if it was a twist on the standard Shintenshin, Obito was sure that his student's mind was back where it belonged.

The man that had killed one ROOT agent and cut the throat of another in the time it took to blink fell as well, and then threw the same knife Obito had right back at him. It was covered in blood now; it struck the tree next to Obito and then-

Minato Namikaze was there. There was a spot of blood on both his hands; he was wearing pale white pajamas and yellow slippers, and his hair was a mess of blond spikes. Whether he'd been padding around in the early morning or still in bed, Obito had no way of knowing.

But it didn't matter. He'd come at the call without hesitation, as he'd always said he would.

"ROOT?" the Fourth Hokage asked. Obito nodded.

' _He killed them without even knowing who they were.'_ That was just how much his sensei trusted him. Why didn't that make him feel better?

Minato looked around, out at the crowning sun, down at the burning village, at both his students. "Rin," he nodded, and Rin smiled back.

"Sorry we wouldn't manage it without you," she said. Minato frowned.

"Looks like a real mess. What's the situation?" The Yondaime flickered out of existence for a second, again, a third time. After the third flicker he was wearing his flak jacket over his pajamas, and had four knives instead of one.

"More than twenty rogue ninja, and at least that many Waterfall shinobi went crazy and started attacking the rest," Obito said. "Itachi's nowhere to be seen. Jiraiya's here; still down there."

"Good. You're both alright? Your team?" Obito both admired the man's discipline in not saying his son's name and felt a cold jolt at it.

"We're fine. So are they, last time we saw them. They're with the Jinchuriki; they should keep each other safe."

"Should," Minato said with a slight nod. "If that's all, let's get down here and clean up."

They started sprinting down the tree, Rin healing Obito sporadically as they went. He felt some of his strength return as the tenketsu in his leg closed back up. His arm was still useless; it would take more than some on-the-run medical jutsu to fix up the hole in his shoulder, even from someone as amazing as Rin.

"He's definitely down there, sensei," he said, and Minato glanced at him. Obito grinned. "It's like you said. Kushina's not here. It'll be different this time."

They reached the base of the tree. Obito looked around, but his sword was nowhere in sight. It could have fallen anywhere in the village; he couldn't count on locating it until things had calmed down.

Minato looked around the village, taking in the chaos. There were still fights flaring up throughout Takigakure, but the tempo had calmed. It seemed that for now, Waterfall was winning. The Hokage was calm; the destruction washed over him without leaving any impression.

"The village can handle the rest. Where's the Jinchuriki?" Minato decided. Rin pointed.

"The safehouse is right over there," she said. The spot she was pointing at promptly exploded.

It was a flash of steam and angry orange energy, erupting dozens of meters straight up into the sky. A blast of crushing chakra washed over all of Takigakure in a physical wave that knocked Obito back a step, and he squinted and clenched his teeth as his heart missed a beat.

Fear. Hatred. Desperation. Were those his own feelings, or had it been carried by the chakra that had nearly knocked him down? Obito couldn't be sure as he surged back to his feet.

The safehouse, and a fraction of the village along with it, was gone. A huge insect with the body of a beetle and seven luminous orange wings rose up out of the ruins, casting a shadow over all of Waterfall; even the great tree seemed small next to it.

_Nanabi_. The Tailed Beast had been unleashed. There were five figures on the monster's back, four fighting, one watching. Even at the distance, Obito's Sharingan could pick out all their chakra with perfect clarity.

His team, and Itachi. Even as they were carried away on the back of the Beast, Team Seven was fighting with all the strength they had.

The fifth person, Obito didn't recognize. As he started to focus, to bring the Kamui to bear on Itachi as the man spun and slipped among his students' wild attacks, the fifth shinobi leapt off the Beast right at him; whether by their own instincts or Itachi's instruction, Obito couldn't say. He shifted his focus, and the man threw a bolt of lightning at him, the ninjutsu so sudden and violent that even with his Sharingan, Obito couldn't hope to dodge.

Minato stepped in front of him, so fast there was no moment of motion, and met the lightning with a Rasengan. Both jutsu burst, blowing the Hokage back into Obito, and they crashed to the ground. As the lightning exploded, the enemy in the air was intercepted by someone from the ground, coming from the direction of the safehouse. They crashed into each other, grappling in mid-air, and then were sent hurtled away from each other by an unknown force.

It was Jiraiya. He landed next to Obito with a grunt, turning towards him. He was covered in burns, and patches of his huge mane of hair and beard were missing. His eyepatch was gone, revealing an empty socket.

"Minato?" the Sage asked, and the Yondaime gave him a short nod. The Nanabi was rising, up and away, moving away from the epicenter of the explosion and gaining speed. It was fast for its size; even its current sedate passage was deafening, seven wings buzzing with more and more vigor.

"Sensei," Minato said. "We can't let it get away."

"No chance." The enemy ninja was striding towards them; a black cloak covered his whole body and a black mask his face, but his voice was like a gravel factory and his eyes were flat green circles. "That's my paycheck."

Rin advanced, and it was a line of four ninja against one. The man looked over them all with obvious disdain.

"The Yellow Flash," he said. "Did you know they don't even bother with a bounty for you anymore?"

"Kakuzu the Immortal," Jiraiya grunted, spitting up a gob of blood. "He's working with Itachi. I couldn't stop them in time."

S-Ranked missing ninja. From Waterfall, if Obito recalled correctly. No wonder the other rogue ninja had gotten in with such ease. Itachi had found the perfect ally.

"Sensei," Rin said, pounding her fists together. The Nanabi was picking up speed; it would clear the plateau in seconds. "You and Obito go after Itachi. You have the best chance against him and that Beast. We'll handle this."

Obito looked back at her, and she nodded.

' _Go_. _'_

"Let's go." The Yondaime took off. Obito followed him, arm swinging limply at his side. Kakuzu watched them go, one eye focusing on them and the other on Rin and Jiraiya.

"That's fine," he ground out as they passed him, focusing all of his attention on his new opponents. "You two are worth plenty."

The Nanabi cleared the plateau, soaring out towards the sunrise as Team Seven continued to struggle on its back. Obito and his sensei picked up speed, sprinting through the burning village and across its outer ring, and jumped. They leapt out into the open air, flying for a moment like the monster they were chasing, and left Waterfall behind.


	30. Truth

The Second Test

When the ROOT agent died high above, Sakura returned to her body with a painful jerk. The transition came without warning; she went from being held in a cruel hand to breathing, seeing, hearing. She gagged, suddenly aware of how much space her tongue took up in her mouth. She was being carried once more, this time over Naruto's shoulder. Her sword was gone: the sheath was empty.

' _Useless. Someone took your body and lost your sword. You're worthless.'_

"Sakura!" Naruto's voice almost managed to drown out her thoughts. "You're awake!" He and Sasuke skidded to a stop, setting her down and looking her over. Sakura looked around; less of the village was on fire than she remembered.

"Keep going," Sasuke said, starting to move again. "We're almost there."

"What happened?" Naruto asked as Sakura tried to figure out where they were. Close to the safehouse, she was pretty sure. It looked a little different with several of the buildings collapsed and with the sun barely up, but the rings made everything distinctive. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," she said. It felt strange to run, like her whole body was asleep. Everything tingled and vibrated uncomfortably. "I don't know what happened."

"You're you, right? Whoever was in you tried to stab Obito-"

"What?!" Sakura nearly tripped, but Naruto caught her, pushing her on. The safehouse came into view and they rounded one of the ring's corners. It was still in one piece, though she knew there was a hole in the wall on the other side. The barrier had come back up; they passed through it with the same heavy ozone tang.

' _I tried to stab Obito? That's worse than worthless.'_

"You didn't get him!" Naruto clarified. "He went right through your sword, you know! Then he went after the guys who'd controlled you; he must have gotten them, right?"

Sakura nodded, trying to control herself. Nothing had made sense in the doll, but the sensation of being thrown around and passed between hands had been unmistakable. The warm chakra with a cold bite that she'd felt must have been Obito's. She'd been snatched back, and then…

The person who'd controlled her had died. Her sensei must have gotten him. She felt a vicious satisfaction at the idea. She hoped he hadn't died quickly.

"He got them," she said, and Naruto grinned. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"Nothing to apologize for!" he assured her without thinking about it. In front of them, Sasuke threw the safehouse door open, barreling inside. "We just gotta stick with Fuu, alright?"

"Right," Sakura said as they turned the corner past the kitchen, heading into the main living room. "Where's my sword?"

"Oh, Obito has it. He-" Naruto started to say, and then he ran right into Sasuke's back. He stumbled backwards; Sasuke hadn't even flinched.

"Sasuke?" Sakura asked, running up to his side. She stopped just as Naruto had, chakra rooting her to the floor and cancelling all her momentum instantly.

Fuu was in the center of the room, squirming on the floor under a thick grid of spiraling fuinjutsu symbols, cast over her like a spider's web. Two of the village elders were there as well; the woman whose hair was full of bells, Ayame, and the man with dark skin whose name Sakura hadn't learned. They were both lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood. Ayame's arm had been torn off at the shoulder: she was still moving, but not in any coherent way. The man was facedown, with no wounds apparent on his back, but there was far more blood around him.

There were two men standing there as well, both tall and wearing long black cloaks. They looked over to Team Seven as they stood stock still in the entryway like animals that had suddenly realized predators were nearby.

One of them was Itachi Uchiha. Sakura had no idea who the other was; his whole face was covered, and even the skin that showed on his hands and forehead was unnaturally black and reflected no light.

"More brats," the unknown man grumbled. Without taking his iridescent green eyes off them, he thrust his inky hand down through Ayame's back. The woman cried out, thick dark blood dribbling out of her mouth, and then went still. The man clenched his hand; there was a crack, and he withdrew it clenching something small and dark in his fist.

' _Her heart,'_ Sakura thought faintly, reaching for a sword that wasn't there. _'He ripped out her heart.'_

"Kakuzu, leave them. They're mine," Itachi said, his tone mild, and the man shrugged. "I'll take the Jinchuriki and meet you at that place tomorrow."

"I'd prefer more of a guarantee," Kakuzu growled, and the heart disappeared from his hand like a magic trick.

"You have plenty of my secrets, and my deposit," Itachi said. "Isn't that enough?"

"For now," the man relented. As they'd been talking, Sasuke had taken a step forward. Now, a second. Naruto followed him, and Sakura had no choice but to mirror him. Her teammate's face was stuck in a rictus of hatred; he'd bared his teeth, eyes wide.

"Sasuke," Itachi said. "Good to see you. But now isn't the best time-"

Sasuke's Sharingan spiraled out, and Itachi's face shifted. He cocked his head, lips tightening.

He smiled.

"Three already?" he said, glancing at Kakuzu. The man lifted an eyebrow and stepped back with an amused grunt. "How impressive. That was quick, even for you."

Sasuke charged without a word, and Naruto and Sakura followed after, attacking from three different directions. Kakuzu watched with an amused air as Itachi slipped past all their attacks, ducking Naruto's Rasengan, kicking away Sasuke's roundhouse, and twisting Sakura's punch to flip her to a hard landing behind him.

"One second," he said as the team circled, looking for an opening. Naruto rotated over to Fuu, glancing down at the seal binding her, obviously trying to figure it out. "Let's move this somewhere else."

He made a ram seal, and Fuu started screaming, her whole body bucking and straining against the seal covering her.

" _NO_!" she shrieked, so loud and so obviously in pain that Sakura felt her blood go cold. She didn't think she could hate Itachi more after what he'd done to her team in the Forest of Death, but she'd been naive. " _NO! CHOMEI, IT'LL BE OKAY!"_

Fuu exploded. The seal on top of her shattered, and Sakura and her team were thrown back, bouncing off the walls and landing on their face. Sakura tried to roll to her feet, but the chakra washing over her stopped her in her tracks. It was just like the Exam, in the arena with Gaara. The chakra of a Tailed Beast, so heavy it kept her lying on her face.

She was being lifted into the air, Sakura realized. The chakra that was pressing down on her was also beneath her, so thick it was lifting her and solidifying beneath her, gaining shape and color. It was the same color as and harder than steel.

The safehouse erupted, splintering under the pressure, and Sakura covered her head as wood rained down on her. She looked up; Itachi was staring up at the sky, apparently unconcerned.

He looked down at her, the peculiar pattern of his Mangekyo glinting, and then around at her teammates, all of whom were pressed just as flat as her. Kakuzu was there as well, on one knee.

"A little heavy?" Itachi asked him with an amused smile, and the rogue ninja snarled. He looked out over the village, green eyes narrowing.

The pressure abated. Sakura didn't wonder why; she just surged to her feet, charging Itachi. He'd caused Fuu to transform somehow; maybe if they beat him, she'd go back to normal. It was the only thing she could think of after the rollercoaster of insanity that the last ten minutes had been. Her teammates did the same, all single-mindedly focused on Sasuke's brother.

Itachi tripped her without looking, dancing past Naruto's thrown kunai and catching Sasuke's fist in a bizarrely gentle grip. He intertwined his fingers with his brother's and swung him to a fro for a moment in a one-handed waltz; Sasuke threw a couple punches at his side, but the dance kept him at a distance, and he only had time to give Itachi a horrified look before his brother swung him right into Sakura, sending her tumbling backwards with a full-body bruise. She stuck herself to the monster beneath them; she couldn't afford to fall off now.

"You did well," he said, swinging Sasuke at Naruto; the Uchiha tucked himself in, keeping one flailing foot from clipping Naruto's face. As Sakura rolled back to her feet, feeling her lips swell up, Kakuzu leapt off of Fuu and down into the village below with the sound of a thunderstrike. Sakura glanced after him as she staggered back to her feet, her entire body aching, and found her sensei and Rin down below. Jiraiya was with them as well, and-

The Fourth? Was that possible?

Her heart, already racing, kicked it up a gear. Naruto's father could take down Itachi for sure. They just needed to keep him busy until the Yondaime could catch up.

Fuu started moving away from the village, faster by the second; the sound of the Tailed Beast's wings beating was deafening, and the storm of wind they kicked up almost tossed Sakura right off its back. She clung on stubbornly, just like the rest of her team. Itachi looked around at all of them, barely shifting. He looked relaxed.

' _How long can you hold on?'_

Unwilling to consider that, Sakura attacked once again.

###

Sasuke didn't understand why his arm wasn't broken.

He'd improved since the exam. In just that short time, he'd become someone who could have trounced his previous self. His Sharingan had improved. His reflexes, ninjutsu, mindset, body, everything had improved in that month of determination.

But still, it...

Just.

Wasn't.

_Enough._

Sasuke had realized it the moment he'd activated his Sharingan, back in the safehouse. The gap between him and Itachi had always been a cliff, an irrational sheer face like the plateau that Waterfall rested upon. When you started climbing that sort of cliff, fifty feet or five hundred felt exactly the same. No matter what, the summit was still out of reach.

He couldn't see the top. Despite how much he and Naruto and Sakura had improved, everything felt _exactly the same._

Itachi was just playing with them. As they fought on top of the fleeing Bijuu, he kicked them back and forth, tossing them to the Beast's back and then letting them rise again. He knocked weapons away, left bruises, but never broke anything, never attacked them while they were prone. It was even more humiliating than a spar; this was like how his parents had fought him when he hadn't even been five, teaching him the basics of when to attack, what to block, what to dodge.

Was he trying to teach them a lesson too? Sasuke grit his teeth so hard he was sure they would crack.

"That's a bad habit," Itachi said as he stepped forward into a beautiful jab, punching Sasuke right in the face. The blow took him on forehead as he ducked back and flipped him like a top. Even his Sharingan's prediction couldn't save him; Itachi, stronger, faster, always adjusted for it before Sasuke could react.

They were getting farther away from the village. As Sasuke flipped backwards, his stomach turning, throat filled with bile, he saw that they had cleared Takigakure's plateau. The village was a wreck; the top of the tree was missing. Obito and Naruto's father were after them, keeping pace with the Bijuu but unable to close the gap. They fell into the forest and out of sight, but he was sure they were still chasing.

He hit the hard shell below him, the impact shaking his whole body, and rolled backwards, trying to get some distance. Itachi was already there: he kicked Sasuke in the side, sending him skittering away with a flash of white fire and right into Naruto, sending his teammate tumbling over him.

"Why are you doing this?!" Sakura screamed. She was behind Itachi now, forming a straight line from herself to Sasuke and Naruto. She'd drawn a kunai and was trying to form her water blade around it, but the blade wasn't chakra conductive: she didn't have the control to keep it cohesive, and it lost water faster than it could grow deadly. She circled, waiting for Sasuke and Naruto to get back up. Itachi cocked his head.

"What do you mean? You attacked me," he asked, and Sakura spat. Her face was almost the same color as her hair, the green of her eyes popping out with unbelievable clarity. She looked just like when she'd fought Gaara.

"Fuu never did anything to you!" she snarled. "Leave her alone!"

"She's right!" Sasuke said, scrambling up and drawing a knife. "You're interested in me, not her! Why bother with this?!"

Itachi looked back and forth between them, and the world slowed down. Sasuke blinked, watching a drop of sweat run down his hand, stop go, stop go, like a faulty projector. Itachi's Mangekyo spun, the blades cutting through his own eyes time after time.

' _Shit_. _'_

"I don't have any interest in Fuu," he said, crossing his arms. Sasuke was paralyzed. They all were. By the tone of Itachi's voice, the reality of the situation, or genjutsu? The world crawled by around them, clouds filled with the red sun's flames burning across the sky. "Just in the Bijuu. If I could have one and not the other, I would."

"But if you take it out, she'll die." Naruto struggled through the molasses holding them all captive, one arm coming up, shaking. "You can't-"

"I'm not going to remove it," Itachi chuckled. He lifted one finger to his lips, an exaggerated shushing motion. "Can you keep a secret?"

Sasuke wanted to close his eyes, to not see this. The thing wearing his brother's face was so like him; it had the same terrible sense of humor, the same subtle wink. It was unbearable.

"I was hired to steal a Bijuu," he said, looking around appreciatively at his captive audience. "By the village who most desperately needs one."

What? Sasuke struggled to speak, the paradox of his not-brother muting him. Sakura was just listening, eyes sharp. The water-knife in her hand was even sharper. Naruto was the only one with the constitution to interrupt.

"You're stupid!" he said. "Who'd wanna start a war with Waterfall? If they figured out you were hired-!"

"The village that is most desperate for more power, of course," Itachi said with a shrug. "You're the son of the Hokage, Naruto, you should know this. People's fear, or ambition, drives them to do things they wouldn't dream of before." He smiled. "Even a village founded on such high pillars as Rain."

"That's not true." Sakura was speaking too, and Sasuke still couldn't. He could feel himself starting to hyperventilate. His mother's advice wasn't working. That was Itachi, it couldn't be someone pretending to be him. "Rain wouldn't do that."

"Believe me or not, it's the truth. But don't tell anyone, alright?" Itachi smiled. "I doubt they'd like that. I was hired because I'm the perfect deniable asset. I'm the crazy Uchiha, remember? No one will assume I'm acting rationally."

' _Acquire the third.'_

Why tell them? It didn't make any sense. Why look so happy about it? It didn't make any sense. He was lying. He had always been lying. Sasuke's hand creaked open, and Itachi's rotating gaze shifted towards him, pinning him in place. He felt his hands curl into claws.

"You told me…" he faltered, forgetting about the rest of his team. It was just him and his brother now, staring at each other on the back of a fleeing Beast, their hair whipping wildly in the gale generated by the huge creature's wings. "You told me I wasn't strong enough, last time."

"You're still not," Itachi noted, hand coming to his chin. He gave Sasuke his full attention, in a way he never had when they were both still children.

"But-"

"But you did get your third tomoe, that's true," Itachi acknowledged. "How did you do it?"

This is the man that killed your father, your cousins, half your family. Why are you just talking with him?

This is your brother. Why wouldn't you talk to him?

"When Naruto and I were fighting," Sasuke said, and Itachi nodded, eyes narrowing.

"Did you want to kill him?" he asked. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. The world sped up a little. It was a genjutsu, and it was straining now.

"Is that how you got yours? Wanting to kill a friend? Our family?" He shot the words like an arrow, but Itachi didn't even flinch. His eyes remained fixed on Sasuke; his face twisted into something between a grimace and a smile.

"Nothing like that," he said, either the truth or a flawless lie, like everything he said. "But that's how it usually is. But you…" He grinned. "You were having fun, huh?"

Sasuke wasn't like his brother, and Itachi saw something in him that confirmed his question.

"That's fantastic," he said, smiling, really smiling, an Itachi smile that barely moved his mouth but lit up his eyes. Sasuke felt something twist in his heart, threatening to break him in half. "Sasuke, that's amazing. You should be proud."

"Shut up." Sasuke closed his eyes, feeling the world around him bend more. He could beat this. Even if his brother had the more advanced eyes, even if he'd _always_ been better, he could beat this, the same way a ninja with a knife could beat one with a sword. " _Shut up._ "

"Well, that's a little rude," Itachi frowned. "But understandable."

Sasuke snapped, and tried to take the false time surrounding them with him.

" _Why did you do it_?!" he screamed, charging forward, leading with his knife. Naruto and Sakura were still paralyzed; it was just him and his brother, a completely hopeless fight. Itachi twisted past the knife like a man stepping through a thin curtain, and Sasuke spun, kicking out at him. Itachi met the kick with his own.

" _Why_?!" he shouted again, kicking out once more. Itachi countered again, their shins clashing one, two, three times, the impact ringing through Sasuke's body. "Just for my eyes?!"

Who cared if he was bigger, stronger, faster? Just keep attacking! It was idiotic, but it was all he could do. Sasuke barreled forward trying to carry his brother off his feet, and Itachi's hands came down on his shoulders. His brother shot up, over him, hands rooted in place, twisted, one hand releasing. Both his feet landed on Sasuke's back, and he was driven to his knees by the force of Itachi's kick, slamming his chin into the Beast's shell.

"For your eyes?" Itachi asked, and Sasuke snarled, trying to roll out from under his brother. Itachi let him go, even let him get back to his feet. "Don't be absurd."

"If not that, then why?!" Sasuke screamed, feeling the roughness in his throat. "You're still you!" The world blurred a little. Until his hand came up and found hot tears, he was sure it was more of the genjutsu. "So why-"

He closed his eyes. He'd lose even if they were open anyway. " _Why would you kill them_?"

Itachi didn't say anything for about five seconds, an eternity in the storm on the Beast's back. Sasuke opened his eyes to find his brother giving him a considerate look.

"You might be happier with a lie," he eventually said. Sasuke gagged. "The truth rarely brings comfort, or even clarity." His lips pressed into a line. "It might be better for you, Sasuke, to live with the reality that your brother just went crazy."

"But you're _not_ ," Sasuke insisted. "You're not crazy!"

"We're standing on top of a Tailed Beast I just stole-"

"Shut up!" Sasuke shouted, stomping his foot like a little kid. Had he just kicked Fuu? He couldn't think about that. "I don't want more lies! I want the truth!"

Itachi looked at him, like he was looking through him, trying to figure out if his sincerity was enough.

"Alright," he decided.

"The Uchiha were a clan of traitors."

"What?" Sasuke took a step back on pure reflex. He'd never heard genuine hatred in Itachi's voice before. Not until today.

"They were scum," Itachi said, as calm as the sea and just as deadly. "Most of the clan was planning to overthrow the village. That's why I killed them."

As Sasuke struggled to comprehend what he'd just said, Itachi looked down at the Bijuu below them, still carrying them away from Takigakure in slow motion. "They were planning to use the Mangekyo Sharingan to rip the Kyuubi out of Kushina Uzumaki…" He looked to Naruto, frozen but steadily regaining life. "Out of your mother, and imprisoning your father. Well, probably killing him. How could you imprison the Yellow Flash? Most likely they would have used his wife as a hostage and then killed him with the monster inside her." He was talking to them and himself at the same time, as though he were rehearsing something he'd never had a chance to say out loud.

That wasn't possible. "That's not possible," Sasuke said, feeling a step behind himself. "There's no way."

"Father and mother were the architects," Itachi said, remorseless, relentless. "They both wanted the clan to have more power. They weren't content with the police force, the prestige of being one of the founders. They wanted control of the village; they wanted to be Hokage." He sneered. "They wanted _me_ to be Hokage for them."

Sasuke shook his head. "No."

"You wanted to know the truth," Itachi said matter of factly. "Why would you deny it now? Because you don't like it?"

"But..." Sasuke said. His father was a traitor? His mother was a traitor? That wasn't possible. His brother was crazy after all. He must have been lying. He was just saying these things to be cruel. It had to be. "Even if that's true… someone must have found out, then. Someone must have made you kill them." He stepped forward, his heart beating out of his chest. "That was it, right? Someone forced you to-!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Itachi crossed his arms. "No one found out. I made sure of that." His Sharingan was spinning faster now, the genjutsu struggling to keep time slowed down. "There wasn't anyone else, Sasuke. It was just me."

Sasuke choked on the finality of his brother's words.

"There were two options, Sasuke." Itachi started pacing, hands opening and closing at his sides. "I could become a traitor to my village, or a traitor to my clan. What kind of choice was that? Who could ever have made the first?" His face twisted into a snarl. "Our worthless parents, who desired power at the sake of all else? That's not what being a shinobi is!"

He stopped, standing his ground against the whole world at his back. "A shinobi is one who sacrifices! Between you and Konoha and the rest of my family, that was a sacrifice I was willing to make without hesitation! That anyone should be willing to!"

He started moving again, driven by murderous animus. "Everyone who'd supported the coup, I killed. Father, I killed. Mother, I couldn't finish her before the Hokage arrived."

Sasuke remembered the room full of blood, the screaming, how Obito had flown across the room. He flinched, and Itachi gave him a sorrowful look.

"And Shisui…" Itachi trailed off with a pained look. "He was the only one I regretted. He was the only one who wouldn't get out of my way." He swayed on his feet, somewhere else entirely. "He tried to use his Mangekyo on me, you know. That Kotoamatsukami of his." He laughed, stricken. "Protect your family, he told me. What the hell did he think I was doing?"

Sasuke had no idea what that meant, and Itachi wasn't interested in telling him more.

"Itachi…" He didn't know what to say. No, he _couldn't_ say anything; his whole body was trembling uncontrollably, overwhelmed with chakra and a thousand conflicting feelings.

"Sasuke, I had to do it." Itachi almost sounded like he was pleading now. Had he ever told anyone? If this was the truth, had he lived the last six years of his life hiding it, telling no one, on the run every day? How could it not have burst out of him sooner?

' _Sacrifice.'_

"It had to be me. I had to… I was the only one who could have." Itachi's face steadily morphed into something more and more deranged. "Do you think Konoha would have forgiven our clan, knowing that so much of it desired to betray it? To rule its ashes? Of course not! 'How did you let it even get this far?' they would have asked, and rightfully so! They would have judged our clanmates and us, the guilty and the innocent, with the same eyes: they couldn't have afforded not to! We would have been too valuable to exile, an entire clan of ungrateful lunatics with dangerous eyes; 'Uchiha' would have become the most bitter curse, and we all would have been executed for our madness. Even the children, even you, for fear you would want to take revenge! They would have taken the Sharingan and left everything else to rot!"

Itachi stepped forward, and Sasuke was unable to back away from the horrible dream that had crept into reality. His brother placed a hand on his shoulder, staring into his eyes, burning him with his sincerity.

"The clan was sick, Sasuke. There was a cancer at its heart, and our parents were the source of it." His grip grew stronger, more painful. "You _can't_ negotiate with cancer. You can't try to find a middle ground, or convince people to live with it. It will kill you no matter what."

His eyes were wide, alive.

"All you can do is cut it out. That's the only way."

He leaned in.

"I did it all for you, _Sasuke_."

Sasuke didn't have anything to say. He couldn't even scream.

He stabbed forward with the knife in his hand, and the blade sunk an inch into Itachi's chest before his brother slammed him down, the blade flying out of sight. The genjutsu shattered. The world resumed its normal operation. Naruto and Sakura both flew forwards.

Itachi looked down in the half-second before Naruto tackled him, and Sasuke was shocked at how betrayed his brother looked. Not even angry. Just disappointed.

Naruto's tackle carried his brother off and Sasuke tried to roll to his feet, but he found himself stuck in his brother's shadow. A Nara jutsu? He thrashed, struggling to escape, but Itachi's shadow held him in place for the critical second necessary for his brother to shuck Naruto off his back and deliver a tremendous kick to Sasuke's gut. He skidded across the Beast's back, wheezing, and Sakura came in even as Naruto rolled away.

She slashed out with her water knife, the blade stabilizing even as she attacked, and Itachi's hand gently met hers, locking her in place. Sakura reached down and lashed out with her empty sheath. Water poured out of it in an endless stream, and Itachi caught her other hand as it splashed across his face; he didn't even blink. His hands twisted, and both the knife and sheath spiraled away. More water splattered everywhere, and Sasuke blinked as a drop flew into his eye. In the time it took his eyes to open back up, Itachi broke Sakura's wrist.

"Glad you don't have your sword," he noted, before driving a knee into Sakura's stomach so hard she lifted up into the air. Sakura collapsed, retching, and Itachi stepped back as she breathlessly clawed at his ankles with her good hand.

Sasuke breathed out a fireball as soon as his brother was clear of Sakura, and Itachi didn't even turn to meet it. He flickered, and the fireball broke into pieces, splattering across Fuu's back. Ssauke couldn't see his brother in the wake of the flames.

' _Did I get him?'_

"Look." Itachi tapped him on the shoulder, and Sasuke spun into a kick. His brother stepped over it and caught the follow-up punch, pointing a thumb back over his shoulder. "They're catching up."

Sasuke looked, wide-eyed; Obito and the Fourth Hokage were still chasing them from the treetops of the forest hundreds of meters below, a blur even to his Sharingan. They were kicking up a wake of destroyed branches in their wake, knocking the canopy of the forest apart with the speed of their passage. They were maybe a hundred meters away now, with the village a pillar of smoke kilometers behind them, and gaining with impressive speed. Somehow, impossibly, they were faster than the giant insect.

"Do you think they want me, or the Bijuu, or you guys?" Itachi asked with a somber expression. "The most, I mean." His chakra surged.

The Tailed Beast started to turn in midair, its momentum and direction unchanging, and Sasuke looked down in horror to find an enormous buildup of chakra below his feet. The pressure returned, trying to push him down, but he stayed standing, staring at the Bijuu's front. It was facing Obito and the Fourth now, flying backwards; thousands of tiny balls of chakra were coming together in front of its mouth.

Sasuke watched, fascinated, as the chakra began combining, forming a huge orb that shone with an inner darkness, growing larger by the second. It was almost like the Rasengan, he thought, but to an utterly insane level. The pressure of the clashing chakra inside the ball was unimaginable, and the sheer amount of it was terrifying.

"Bijuudama," Itachi said. The whole Bijuu quivered, aching to release the chakra bomb. Obito slowed down; the Yondaime didn't.

"You…" Sasuke coughed, his heart beating faster than he could track. "What are you doing?! You'll kill them!" It made no sense. Kill his family for the village, and then kill the Yondaime? Insane. His brother was actually insane.

Itachi quirked an eyebrow. "I just need to slow them down," he said, and stomped his foot. The Bijuudama launched, screaming into a sonic boom. It wasn't aimed directly at his sensei, Sasuke realized, but at distant Takigakure. Despite that, it tore a huge hole in the forest, ripping up everything below it with its inexorable gravity.

Far below, the Yondaime came to a stop, tossing something up into the air, too small for Sasuke to see at the distance. He threw both his arms out, concentrating, and golden chakra exploded out of him, a jutsu grid forming out of the naked air in front of his hands.

The Bijuudama hit an invisible wall and sank in with deliberate speed, slowly slipping out of sight. The moment it vanished, there was a tremendous explosion miles behind The Village Hidden in the Waterfall; it almost eclipsed the rising sun. It would have erased the entire village twice over.

Itachi turned back to him with a grin. Their pursuers were almost a kilometer away now, just from their brief pause. "See? That's the Hokage for you."

Naruto came out of nowhere, Rasengan screaming, and Itachi seized his arm, throwing him over his shoulder. The Rasengan exploded, the residual force blowing a ragged hole in Itachi's cloak, and Naruto went sailing off the Bijuu, plummeting towards the forest below.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed out; Sasuke was too shocked to even move. Before he could do a thing, Itachi was at his teammate's side. As he and Sakura both turned, desperate to act, Itachi kicked her in the side, hard; Sakura shot sideways like a rag doll, bouncing once and falling right off the Beast as well.

" _No_!" The scream tore itself out, and Sasuke rushed forward, too little, too late. Itachi caught him by the throat, lifting him up as he kicked in a blind rage.

"You know what happened now," he said. "Do you feel better?"

"You're lying! You must be!" Sasuke couldn't say anything coherent. It was just him and his brother now, and he didn't know what he wanted; to kill the man or question him more.

"Ask mother, if that makes you feel better," Itachi said, tossing him to his feet. Sasuke stumbled, almost falling on his butt; the wind hitting his front was like a solid object. "Just be ready for her to try and justify herself."

Sasuke's mouth moved, but nothing came out. His brother stepped forward.

"I'm really proud of you, Sasuke." He smiled. "For wanting to know the truth. Even if it hurts now… it'll be better next time. Promise."

He reached forward, two fingers settling on Sasuke's forehead, over his hitai-ate. Sasuke stiffened, ready to strike out.

Itachi pushed. It wasn't gentle; Sasuke was sent flying backwards, right off the Nanabi. He tumbled into the open sky.

The world spun, green and blue and brown and white and red changing places so quickly that Sasuke couldn't right himself. He tried to find up from down, but was blinded by tears. Where was everyone? He caught a glimpse of the Beast retreating, cutting a swathe through the clouds as it gained altitude, Itachi still clinging to its back. The ground was drawing closer and closer. He had to stabilize himself. Even with his chakra-reinforced body, if he hit the forest at terminal velocity it could kill him. Why would Itachi have-?

Sasuke didn't see Obito appear. He was just there, as sudden and sure as the sunrise. They were still several hundred feet above the ground; his teacher had popped out of the thin air from the Kamui.

He wrapped his blood-soaked arms around Sasuke, and they flickered through a cold world before crashing to the forest floor. Sasuke scrambled away, unable to handle being held, and vomited in the grass, his whole body shaking.

"Sasuke." Obito grabbed his shoulder, and Sasuke threw his arm off. "Are you okay?"

"No!" Sasuke said, the sound emerging from him indistinguishable from laughter or crying. "Where're they?!" He was starting to hyperventilate, totally unable to control himself.

"Minato's got them," Obito said. Sasuke collapsed, wheezing. "They're safe."

"Okay." He started shaking more violently. "Okay…"

Not okay.

Sasuke started crying, truly crying, his whole body shuddering as he gasped for air.

"What happened up there?" Obito asked. He didn't reach for him, knowing he'd be smacked away once more. "Sasuke? Did he hurt you?"

"I thought-" Sasuke gasped, desperate to speak. He had to let out what was inside him. "I thought- I hoped it would be something else. Someone else." He laughed, high and mirthless.

"What?" Obito frowned, his mismatched Sharingan shining.

"I didn't think he could have done it." Sasuke whispered. "The whole time… even when I was hating him, I thought that was impossible." He tried to stagger upright and failed, his heart trying to burst out of his chest. "I thought someone forced him, or it was a disguise, or he was controlled, or went crazy, or _something_." He gasped, his whole face painfully contorting. He felt like he was going to shatter. "I thought that if I got to him, that if I got strong, found out the truth, it would all make sense!"

Sasuke doubled over, trying to scream the world away. "But there wasn't anything like that! It was just him!"

Obito startled back, and Sasuke fell to his knees, the scream pouring out of him in one long breath.

"He killed father! He tried to kill mom too! He killed Shisui because he got in the way! _That's all it was!_ "

Sasuke collapsed, emptied out. He couldn't scream anymore. All he could manage was a hoarse whisper.

"It was just him," he said, closing his eyes as more tears leaked out. He had to accept it. He didn't have a choice.

Itachi was a murderer, not a liar.

"That's all it ever was."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A delayed double update, as my sort of apology for that two month hiatus. Hope you enjoyed!


	31. Roots

Victim of Success

When Team Seven returned to Konoha, not even three hours had passed since Fuu had been kidnapped. The sun hadn't fully risen, which only made the nightmare they were all trapped in more surreal. They stumbled into existence inside the Hokage's office, and Minato tousled Naruto's hair like it was any other day, as if he hadn't just carried them across the country in an instant with his Hiraishin. Naruto stared at his father, silent.

"Be back," the Hokage said before he vanished again, presumably to put on some real clothes.

Sakura looked at her teammates, and they at her, and none of them had anything to say.

"Take a minute," Rin said, plopping right down on the floor in a cross-legged position and examining her hand. There was a scar there, Sakura saw, a pale splotch in the center of her palm. All of Rin's scars were like that, so faint you wouldn't notice them unless you were looking. They weren't obvious like Obito's.

Obito settled down as well with a sigh. "I'm the sensei here," he said faintly. Even after three hours of rest he was clearly exhausted. There was still a bit of dried blood below his left eye that he'd neglected to wipe away. "But that's a good idea. Sit down, guys."

For lack of anything better, Team Seven joined the adults on the floor of the Hokage's office. Sakura looked around, the quiet of the situation deafening. This was worse than the battle had been; that hadn't begged to be filled with something to distract her, at least.

Naruto was the first to speak up, though it took him a minute.

"What's gonna happen to Fuu?" he asked. Subdued, tired. God, they were all so tired. Sasuke's eyes were red, and his hand shook occasionally. Sakura looked down at her wrist. Rin had healed her first-thing; the break had been clean, like Sasuke's arm had been. Itachi hadn't been interested in hurting them, at least not permanently.

' _A clan of traitors.'_

None of them had told the Hokage about that. Why? Because they were scared it was true?

"Depends," Rin said, frank as always. "If Itachi was telling the truth and she's going to Rain, she'll probably be alright. She's a fully trained Jinchuriki; they'd be morons to take the Beast out of her. Most likely-"

"He was telling the truth," Sasuke said quietly. Rin glanced at him, and then Obito.

"Sasuke," their sensei said gingerly. "You can't take that for granted. You were in a genjutsu. Itachi could have made anything seem real-"

"I know my brother." Sasuke was abrupt, his voice fatal. He looked up, and his eyes were red from both his tears and his Sharingan. "I tried to spend every day with him, when he was still here. I know when he was lying. He was never good at it, not with me."

"I never heard about anything like what Itachi talked about, Sasuke." Obito was being careful; Sakura could feel that Sasuke was on a hair-trigger, and she was sure their sensei was even more aware. "Some sort of coup; it never came up." He sat up a bit straighter, trying to engage Sasuke earnestly. "I would have been approached, if there was."

"You weren't military police." Sasuke had been thinking about this, Sakura could tell. He hadn't stopped since they'd been thrown off the Bijuu; he'd been running the scenario in his head, over and over, trying to figure out Itachi's words. She wasn't even an Uchiha and she'd been doing the same. "You didn't live in the compound. You were the Hokage's student." He chuckled. "Most of them didn't like you. The ones that died, even."

"Okay," Rin said, holding up a hand. "We could do this all day, we don't know if _anything_ Itachi said to you guys was true. Ba-!" she interjected, pointing at Sasuke as he made to speak again. "We're finishing Naruto's question! _Assuming_ Fuu ends up in Rain, she'll be fine. Ninja being stolen from other villages like that is uncommon, but not unheard of. Depending on how attached she was to Waterfall…" Rin snorted. "She might fit right in."

That didn't sound so bad to Sakura. Well, getting kidnapped wouldn't be good. And that Rain would actually have hired Itachi to cause the kind of destruction he had in the Village Hidden in the Waterfall… that left a deeply sour taste in her mouth.

' _The thing that shinobi supply is violence.'_

Was she being naive again? She was too tired to know. Naruto nodded, his mouth pressed into a firm line.

"Waterfall won't try to get her back?" he asked, and Obito shook his head.

"From Rain?" he said. "No. They don't have the strength, especially now. They'll be running missions non-stop to stay on their feet."

Fifty-two ninja dead, and many more wounded. It seemed a small number when Sakura put it to herself that way, but it was a significant chunk of Waterfall's strength, and four of them had been the village elders. Waterfall had been practically decapitated by that man with green eyes, Kakuzu the Immortal.

Jiraiya and Rin had killed him once each, and he'd still gotten away. Sakura didn't know what to think of that. It reminded her of Hidan, an old and crusty memory even though their first C-Rank had been less than a year before. It seemed there was more than one ninja running around out there that could ignore death.

"Who were…" Sakura started to ask, before trailing off. Compared to what had happened to Sasuke, to Fuu, her kidnapping seemed small and pointless to talk about. But Obito shifted towards her, and his expectant look drew the rest of the question out of her. "Who took me?"

Obito and Rin shared a look; whatever had happened to Sakura hadn't come up when Jiraiya and Minato had been conferring with what was left of Waterfall's leadership.

"That's a little complicated," Obito said. Rin nodded. "Technically, they were-"

"Traitors." Everyone in the room jumped. Even Obito and Rin hadn't heard Jiraiya enter; the man was completely silent, despite his size.

"Having a little pow-wow here, huh?" He eased down. "Mind if I join?"

"Sensei," Obito said. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"Minato ditched me too," the Sannin said with a grunt. "I figured I'd come find the rest of you. I'm still your mission, aren't I?"

He made it sound innocuous, but his look was too casual. His gaze flitted over each of them in turn, committing to no one. "Wanted to see what you were doing with your brats."

"Traitors?" Sakura was too tired to give the man any deference, no matter his age or experience. Jiraiya gave her an appraising look. At least she had her sword back; she thought, irrationally, that it helped her look more put together. "What do you mean?"

"To Konoha," Jiraiya said.

Rin laughed. "There's a lot of people who'd say the same thing about you, you know," she said, and Jiraiya chuckled good-naturedly.

"Well, you know, the traitor is the guy who punches first," he said. Sasuke shifted, looking down, staring at the carpet and seeing nothing. "After that, if you hit back, you're just giving just dues."

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Naruto said, looking ready to burst to his feet. "Who the fuck messed with Sakura? It was like someone took her over. Was that one of the rogue ninja?"

"ROOT," Obito said. Naruto gave him an uncomprehending look, the word meaningless to him and Sakura both. "Don't look at me like that, I think it's an anagram for something, I don't know what. Like ANBU. They also went by The Foundation."

"Obito, you suck at this. Here's a history lesson for you kids," Rin said, scooting forward and ignoring Obito's hurt look. "Before Naruto's dad, the Third Hokage was in charge. You know that." They all nodded, wondering why they were being given a lesson reserved for four year-olds. "What a lot of people didn't know was that the Third had a right hand, Danzo Shimura. He was called Konoha's Shadow, just like how the Third was Fire's."

Naruto nodded, actually paying full attention to a history lesson for what was probably the first time in his life. Sakura thought he looked kind of cute, his face scrunching up as he followed the new names.

"Danzo ran an offshoot of Black Ops, exempt from the Hokage's supervision," Rin continued. "That was ROOT, Foundation, whatever they wanted to call it. It started out as a way for the Third to maintain deniability for anything Konoha needed to get done, but couldn't advertise."

Naruto and Sasuke both took that without question, but the assumption made Sakura want to wretch.

"However, it turned out a lot worse than that," Rin said, her face darkening. "ROOT was rotten to the core. With no one to keep watch on Danzo and his people, they started exploring stuff that was a lot worse than assassination or torture: human experimention, murder, outright undermining the Hokage. But because the Third trusted Danzo, 'cause he'd been his teammate, this all went undiscovered for a long time."

It sounded convenient, Sakura thought, that a disbanded organization would have been responsible for so many terrible things when they'd first been founded to get stuff done that Konoha couldn't. It sounded like something a kid would yell when they shoved an incriminating item into someone else's hand.

"How'd they get found out?" Naruto asked. Obito shifted, but Jiraiya was the one who spoke.

"I killed Danzo," he said. "It all came out from there." Naruto blinked at his harsh tone.

"You killed the Third's teammate?" he asked, the gears obviously turning. "Wait, wasn't he your sensei? You killed your sensei's teammate?"

Jiraiya grinned. "He hasn't spoken to me since."

"What…" Sakura asked. "What happened? What caused that?"

_'What made them decide to target me?'_

"Danzo often conducted operations outside of the Land of Fire," Obito said, so clinical, as if he wasn't talking about people getting murdered. "One of ROOT's last ops was in the Land of Rain. This was about… fifteen years ago, I think."

"Rain," Sasuke muttered. The whole room turned to him in surprise. "It always comes back to Rain…"

"In this case, yes," Obito said. "Danzo allied himself with Hanzo, which I'm sure plenty of people found hilarious, to destroy an organization he'd decided was a potential threat to Konoha."

Sakura felt her spine prickle, remembering another conversation with her sensei, her time with Haku, the ridiculous books from the library, Jiraiya's apparent reputation. The past crystalized her in a moment of frightening clarity.

"The Akatsuki," she said. Obito nodded, and she looked at Jiraiya, eyes wide. "He went after your students."

The Sage didn't say anything at first, just watched her with his dark eye. He'd done just the same as Obito would, she thought. They were more alike than they looked.

"It wasn't my first thought. We tried to talk it out," he said after a moment, his lips quirking up into a non-smile. He gestured at his missing eye. "It didn't end well."

For some reason it was that simple acknowledgement, more than anything else that had happened that day, that made Sakura feel all too young and stupid. The Third's student had killed a Hokage's teammate and right hand man in defense of his own students, orphans from another land. It was all so tragic and absurd.

"So they were after you," she said. Jiraiya nodded. "And you?" she asked Obito. He rubbed the back of his head. "That's why they used me, to get you to drop your guard. And that's why Rin was along on the mission…"

"ROOT needed a lot of cleaning up once Danzo was gone," Obito said. "The Yondaime wasn't sure who to trust, so he turned to me." He shifted, drawing his legs in. "I became his shadow. Anyone who was left would doubtlessly hold a grudge. And there were plenty left; no one was sure who was part of the Foundation or not, so plenty went underground. Like those three: they must have been waiting for a team to lead them to Jiraiya for years."

"And they chose that time to do it?" Naruto asked. "Did they want Waterfall to… did they want that to happen?"

"They didn't care," Rin said. "Waterfall didn't matter to them; our mission even less. They just needed to kill Obito, and Jiraiya, and me. That was the kind of shinobi ROOT created. Weapons that would focus on the mission, and nothing else."

Team Seven digested that in silence, each of them absorbed in their own thoughts.

"You trained the Rain guys, right." Once again, Naruto was the one to break the silence. This time, his question was directed at Jiraiya. His father's master turned to face him, giving Naruto his full attention. "Do you think Itachi told us the truth? That Rain hired him to steal Fuu?"

Naruto's focus was clear, and Sakura couldn't blame him. He and Fuu had connected instantly; her being snatched away with such violence had hurt him the most of all.

Jiraiya scratched his beard. "Hmm." He grunted. "It doesn't make me look good to say, but I don't know."

He sat up. "I didn't train them to be better shinobi, like I did your pouty little Uchiha here." Obito protested, and Sakura felt something that could have been a laugh on any other day in her chest. "I saw three kids who were in a bad situation and tried to give them the tools to get out of it. Power, sure, enough to protect themselves, but also understanding."

"Understanding?" Naruto cocked his head.

"Understanding the consequences of that power," Jiraiya said. "What they could use it for besides creating more war, more hatred. I tried to teach them about Ninshu, the original shinobi creed. And when they founded the Akatsuki, I thought I'd succeeded, that they were trying to build something new."

Ninshu? Sakura had never heard the term before, but the way Rin and Obito looked at each other made it clear this was an old discussion.

Jiraiya blew out a breath. "But the past few years have made it clear that was just another failure."

"Don't be so dramatic," Rin rolled her eyes. The Sage gave her an unamused look.

"The Akatsuki that I killed Danzo to save is gone," he said. "It drowned in its own self importance." Sakura blinked, realizing the chain of ideology that had led Haku to her had started with the man in front of her. She was overcome with the urge to talk to him. This was the source of Haku's ideals, she thought. Jiraiya of the Sannin had passed his ideas onto the original Akatsuki, and they to Haku, and him to her. It was bizarre to consider the circle she was participating in, sitting in this room and trying to overcome the shock of the morning.

Jiraiya was still talking as Sakura tried to figure out what she would even say to him if she worked up the courage. "Rain has become just another great village spreading disaster after disaster. They accumulate power, debt, and hatred like there's no bottom to it, no consequence. Snatching up rogue ninja, giving them sanctuary and acting as a lightning rod for the other villages' spite, trying to recruit promising young shinobi…" He gave Sakura a loaded glance and frowned. "Because they're convinced that I gave them a mission, that that mission is more important than everything else in the world, they've become willing to do _anything_ to accomplish it."

He sneered. "Why worry about creating more hatred, when you're going to solve it anyway?"

"What's Ninshu?" Sakura asked, deciding on her plan of attack.

"Sensei," Obito said with a warning glance. Jiraiya snorted.

"Your sensei doesn't want me infecting more young minds with my nonsense," he said with a wry look. "But you were already approached by Rain, weren't you Sakura? She's already been pricked."

"I haven't heard of that either though," Naruto said, scooting forward. "And you said you were gonna talk to me later anyway. How about you tell me?"

Sakura gave him an appreciative look. Jiraiya looked to Obito for apparent permission, and their sensei gave him a helpless shrug.

"I'm the one who named you, you know," Jiraiya said, and Naruto started back.

"What?" he asked. "My dad named me." He thought about it. "Hey, you're trying to change the subject!"

"I'm the one who gave your dad that name," Jiraiya said with a bit of mean glee. "And you're right about that. Do you want to know more about your name, or Ninshu?"

"How about you just tell me both?" Naruto said, crossing his arms and looking unimpressed.

"Tch. Greedy kid, aren't you," Jiraiya said. "Ninshu was the original shinobi creed."

"You already said that," Naruto grumbled, and the Sage laughed.

"My, you're just like your father. So impatient!" he said. Naruto perked up. "There's a legend that the first man to control chakra intended to spread Ninshu as a new way of living. He was called the Sage of the Six Paths, and he grew up in an age of terrible conflict." Jiraiya got a far off look, staring out the windows at the clear blue skies hanging over the village. "His idea was that with chakra people could become more compassionate, understand and help each other, instead of fighting and killing each other all the time. He traveled around, spreading that creed and trying to create lasting peace."

"But eventually, people's worse natures won out. Or at least, a couple peoples' did." The old man looked sad, far too sad for an old story. "Ninshu became Ninjutsu, a creed of violence, supremacy. And the problem with something like that is that once one person is practicing Ninjutsu, everyone around them only has two choices: take up Ninjutsu themselves, or have their life held at the whim of those who have."

"That's the way of ninja in the world today. No one can stand against them. To deal with ninja, more ninja are required. And so long as Ninjutsu is widely practiced, that will always be the case."

Obito leaned forward. "We've done this before, Jiraiya. It's already out of the bottle."

"I know," the man grunted. "That's why I'm looking for a new solution. When the old one doesn't work, you don't just give up. You innovate. The same process that created this new way could also destroy it."

Sakura wondered what Naruto and Sasuke were thinking: she couldn't read their faces. Sasuke was still staring at the carpet, while Naruto was tilting his head. Was he understanding what Jiraiya was saying, or was it just washing over him?

"I get why you're disappointed then," he said suddenly. Yeah, he understood, Sakura thought. "Cause what the Akautski became, they don't think like that. They want to change some things, like getting rid of Hanzo, but they don't want to change the whole thing. They're just more ninja, when you wanted to get rid of that kinda thing." He looked down, pursing his lips. "So you were lying earlier. You do know. You think they would have stolen Fuu."

Jiraiya gave him a silent stare, and Naruto looked up at him fearlessly.

"Is he usually like that?" the Sannin quietly asked Obito. Their sensei shook his head.

"It's been an interesting day," he said, rubbing his shoulder.

"I'm right, right?" Naruto asked.

"You're right," Jiraiya said. "Rain possessing a Bijuu is the natural next step for them." He frowned. "But hiring Itachi is not. Even if they have no compunction about accepting rogues into their ranks, Itachi is on another level of notoriety. They couldn't have just assumed that no one would find out; that would be too reckless of them."

"So… you think they'd do it, but you can't be sure Itachi wasn't lying," Naruto said. Jiraiya nodded.

"It could go either way. And either way, it's dangerous. If Rain has a Jinchuriki, they'll grow that much bolder. If Itachi, for some reason, stole a Bijuu for his own purposes…" Jiraiya laughed. "That might be even worse."

"How could we find out?" Sakura asked.

"Find Itachi," Obito said. Sasuke growled as their sensei continued. "Get hard intel out of Rain. Both of those are hard. That's the Hokage's business, not yours." Their sensei stood up, stretching. "Here's the hardest part of a mission like this," he said, a little grim. "You succeeded. Congratulations."

' _This doesn't feel like success,'_ Sakura thought, tasting some of Takigakure's smoke and ash in her mouth.

' _I don't ever want to feel like this again.'_

###

Her mother was there when Sakura got home, and she wasn't sure how to feel about that. She crept through the door, wondering why she was there. The Hokage had returned and told them all to get some rest; there would be another debriefing later in the day, apparently, though Sakura wasn't sure what it could be for. What was there left to say?

She wasn't sure why she'd gone home. Probably because it had felt like she didn't have anywhere else to go, even though that wasn't true. That lack of direction was what caused her to sneak into her own house as though she were a criminal.

Her mother was reading a book on the couch in the living room, just off of the main entrance, and she didn't notice Sakura enter right away. On any other day, she would have marveled at that. Mebuki was a trained ninja, after all, and Sakura had never been able to sneak up on her before. Even if her mother was distracted, slipping past her would be an impressive benchmark.

But Sakura took a shaky breath, her concentration and confidence more fragile than ever, and her mother's head snapped up at the sudden sound. She spun, the book coming up in a ready position, and froze at the sight of her daughter.

"Sakura?" she asked, perplexed. "You're already back?"

Sakura stared, no words coming to mind. She'd thought for a second that her mom might hurl the book at her head. _Chakra Thermodynamics and the New Ninjutsu._ It was pretty thick and was bound in a dull blue leather. Maybe it would knock her out, if her mom threw it hard enough.

"What gives? It's only been a day. Did you forget something?" Mebuki frowned, rolling over the back of the couch and faultlessly coming to her feet. "What's with your face?"

Rin had helped, but the full-body bruise Itachi had given her was still there, Sakura realized. She'd already grown used to the constant dull ache, but she was still a little swollen, for sure.

Were they still not talking? Is that why she was mute? Sakura felt her lip quiver.

Her mother stepped closer. She could tell something was wrong.

"Sakura…" she said, and Sakura coughed.

"We succeeded in our mission," she said, surprised at how lifeless she sounded. Her mother jerked back, the same surprise written across her face. "So we're back."

"In one day? I heard it was a B-rank retrieval. They were that easy to find?" Mebuki crossed her arms.

' _She thinks you're lying.'_

Would her mother really think that, or was she lying to herself? Impossible to tell.

"One of the Sannin," Sakura said. Her mother laughed. "Jiraiya."

"Well, well done then!" she said. "But if that's the case, why're you fretting?"

' _She thinks you're lying, and now she's being sarcastic.'_

Sakura wished she could shut herself up, the way she'd been able to after the exam. She'd been able to shut that voice down after stabbing Gaara, after her anger had burned all other concern away. But now…

She felt herself tear up. Her mother's attitude shifted instantly; she stepped forward again, hands up. "Sakura," she said, tone firmer. "What happened?"

"I don't know if I'm even allowed to tell you," Sakura sobbed, her whole body shaking as she tried to control herself. Don't cry, what are you, still a little girl? Someone who fought Itachi Uchiha on top of a Tailed Beast shouldn't go home and cry about it. "The Hokage brought us back here-"

If her mother hesitated at that, she didn't show it. "If he sent you off knowing you might go home, he would have known you might talk about your mission. And he would have trusted your judgement." She gestured, curt, no room for argument or resistance. "Let's sit down and talk about it, okay?"

As soon as Sakura's back hit the couch, she started weeping. The whole story of their mission poured out of her in one long tidal wave, as though she were a breached dam. Tanzaku Gai, Takigakure, ROOT, Itachi. The only thing she was able to hold back was what Sasuke's brother had told them about the Uchiha. She was self-aware enough to know that that wasn't appropriate to talk about. Not yet, maybe not ever.

Her mother watched her the whole time with wide, compassionate eyes, interrupting infrequently, asking for clarification, comforting her, mouth pressed thinner and thinner. When Sakura was finished, they both sat there, silent but for Sakura's occasional gasping.

Eventually, her mother scooted over and put her arm around her. Sakura froze. Distantly, she thought that she'd treated both her parents poorly. That she needed to earn back their love, because she hadn't even apologized for screaming at them after the exam, in the hospital. That she'd been so quiet, not because she hated them but because she didn't know what to say, how to apologize, and she was sure that they would have perceived malice in that silence, because it was what she would have seen.

But Mebuki hugged her, practically crushed her to her side, and there wasn't any sense of needing to earn anything in her touch. Sakura's mother accepted her unconditionally, and that realization just made her cry more.

They stayed like that with no sense of time, until Sakura pulled back, and her mother let her go.

"Sakura," she said with a sad smile. "It seems you're doomed to an interesting life."

That made Sakura laugh, and the sound of her own laughter punctured the grey gauze that the morning had stretched over the world. It was a stupid, sudden thing, but she could breathe again, see color again, look to the future again. If she could laugh, she was still alive; she could move forward. It meant she could get back on her feet. It meant that this wasn't the end of the world.

It meant that if she found it within herself, she could save Fuu.

"I'm really sorry," she said. Her mother grinned. "I don't know why I got so mad, with you and dad. I don't know…"

"You're a teenager," her mom said. "You're going to do stupid things. So long as you recognize that, you'll be alright."

"Is he here? He was here yesterday," Sakura asked, and her mom nodded.

"He's in town. We'll do something later, okay?" she said. "For now, let's just stay here, alright? You've had a tough morning."

Sakura nodded, overcome by sudden exhaustion. She slumped against her mother's side, and Mebuki picked her book back up and began reading it in a low accented voice, the kind of voice she only used when reading aloud.

Chakra theory was normally a subject Sakura was fascinated by, but today she could barely keep her eyes opened. She slumped, the words dragging her down, and eventually fell asleep at her mother's side.

###

"Sasuke," Obito said, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "You can't rush into this."

"Oh?" Sasuke said. He didn't mean for it to come out as anything, but it manifested as a threat. Everything was a threat now. He felt like a blade without a handle. "Why not?"

"This is something that needs to be handled delicately," his sensei said. Obito had caught him on the way back home, and now they were talking above the street, away from curious ears.

"You're afraid it's true," Sasuke said. It was obvious to him. Obito had always been overcautious, and now his whole body was tense, waiting to spring into action. Even though the man was family, his sensei, his superior, Sasuke couldn't feel any respect for him right now. He couldn't respect anyone who'd try to stop him.

"Because I understand the consequences," he said. "Sasuke, if Itachi was right, if that gets out, the whole village would have no choice but to act. The military police would be dissolved, at best. The clan would be-"

"I don't care," Sasuke said bluntly. Obito's face went flat. They stared at each other, and for a mad second Sasuke thought he might strike him.

"You know I don't have much love for the clan," Obito said. His face twitched. "But I'm still saying this. Get it through your head." He took a step forward, and Sasuke stared defiantly up at him. "This isn't just about your brother anymore. There are a lot of people's lives on the line now; the rest of your family's."

His mouth pressed into a flat line. "You wouldn't be careless with them. That's not the kind of person you are."

Sasuke struggled, torn between a contrarian attack and the truth. He tried to breathe, to center himself, but that was impossible. Itachi had destroyed his center, and now he could only teeter from one extreme to the other.

"We'll go together then," he decided, switching from confrontary to concillarity on a dime. Obito raised an eyebrow at the change. Sasuke knew it wasn't like him, but he didn't know what he was anymore. "We're the only two who know. We'll go talk to mom together."

"That's what I was hoping," Obito said cautiously. "It'll be cleanest that way." He turned to go, gesturing for Sasuke to follow.

"But Obito," he asked, and his teacher paused. "What'll you do when she confirms it?"

It was an ugly thing to say, and Obito didn't bother responding. He whirled out of existence, and Sasuke was left alone in the middle of the village.

"Tch," he said to himself. "He'll beat me there."

He took a mild pace, knowing that no matter how fast he went his teacher would be waiting for him by the time he got to the compound. The journey, familiar and rote, now seemed to carry some extra import. All of the other clans lived close to Konoha's center, Sasuke thought, but the Uchiha and military police compound was far to the east, almost beyond the walls and isolated from everyone else.

In the past, he'd barely thought about it; of course the police needed a separate district. That was only natural. Now, it was strange. Why so separate, when they had been one of the founding clans? Why so distant, when it was their job to protect the village? If it had been the Uchiha's decision, that spoke to an unpleasant ego. And if it hadn't been…

Sasuke was so absorbed in his own thoughts that the village passed by in a flash. When someone called out his name, it took a moment for him to register it.

"Hey! Sasuke!" His name repeated once more. He looked back and found Kiba Inuzuka chasing him across the rooftops, running along an electrical cable that bridged a street.

He considered stopping. He had no idea why Kiba would be chasing him. The boy had a determined look on his face.

"Hinata said you were back!" the boy called, and Sasuke twitched. "It's only been a day! What gives?"

Right. The balm. The note.

Sasuke felt something in his heart calcify.

"Leave me alone," he said, coming to a stop but not turning around. He looked away before he could see Kiba's face shift, staring ahead. His home was only a couple miles away.

"What the hell?" Kiba called. Sasuke heard his shoes scuff against the concrete of the roof behind him as the boy came to a stop. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't have time," Sasuke said. He couldn't control his tone; each word came out blunt and cold, like a hammerstrike. "Go away."

"Jeez, what crawled up your ass?" Kiba said as he approached. Sasuke twitched. He didn't want the boy to get closer. "Hinata asked me to check on you. She said-"

"I don't want anyone checking on me," Sasuke spat out. He spun, and Kiba took a step back. His classmate looked shocked; what did _he_ look like right now, Sasuke wondered. The world was painted in every color under the sun with invisible energy. His Sharingan had activated without him even thinking about it. "And even if I did, that's not her job." He took a step forward, jabbing a finger at Kiba's chest. _"Go away._ And tell her not to spy on me again."

Kiba considered him, a grimace gradually twisting his face. "Asshole," he growled. "I don't know why she bothers caring."

Sasuke stared at him. He didn't feel a thing beyond some disgusted pride at keeping such a cold face despite everything. After a moment, Kiba's eyes narrowed, and he turned.

"See ya," he grunted. Sasuke didn't watch him leave. He just went on his way, back towards his home. He couldn't feel the sun on his face and back; everything seemed cold and listless. Nothing changed when he arrived at the compound.

There were two Uchiha at the front gate: Eiji and Ari. Sasuke knew all of his clansmens' names, even if he wasn't friends with most of them. Eiji was an older man with a gray toothbrush mustache, a member of the military police; Ari was a young girl, only five years old and, unusually for an Uchiha, had long blonde hair. She'd been born after the massacre; one of her parents was from outside the clan.

Watching the entrance was something all Uchiha took shifts on, even if it was only a formality. Sasuke had considered it a fun tradition, but now like everything else it took on an ominous aspect.

"Sasuke!" Eiji called, and Sasuke gave him a nod. "Back so soon! As expected of you!"

Sasuke came to a stop before the both of them, glancing between the two. Ari gave him a shy grin, peeking out from beneath her bangs. "Has Obito come through?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"Uncle Obito? We didn't see him," she said. A lot of the younger Uchiha called Obito that. They hadn't had time to take in the rest of the clan's ambivalence towards him.

Had that been because he was the Yondaime's student?

"He might have popped up inside though," Eiji said. He scratched his chin and laughed. "You know how that ghost is."

"Of course," Sasuke said, rushing past them into the compound. They gave him a quizzical look; he was getting good at ignoring those.

His Sharingan was still one, he realized. It felt like he couldn't turn it off. It was usually as simple as flipping a switch, channeling the chakra from his core to his eyes; now, even that felt like a live wire that he couldn't dare touch.

He darted through the streets, afraid of meeting anyone else. Cold concrete, imposing architecture. Privacy, intimidation, and security over all. More pieces for the puzzle his mind couldn't stop working. Within the minute, he was home.

True to his prediction, Obito was already there. He and Sasuke's mother were seated on mats on opposite ends of a table on the back porch. When Sasuke pushed through the final door, they were locked in a silent staring match, and barely seemed to notice his arrival.

"Mom," Sasuke said, and Mikoto shifted to glance at him. A smile lit up her face.

"Sasuke-" she started to say. He cut her off, looking to Obito.

"Did you say anything?" he asked. His teacher frowned and crossed his arms. He'd found the time to scrub away the dried blood on his face.

"Not yet," he said, and Mikoto looked back to him, still smiling. "But she knows we have to talk."

"Itachi was there," Sasuke said without preamble. His mother nodded.

"Obito told me," she said. "I'm glad you're okay-"

"He told me the truth," Sasuke said, and his mother's smile disappeared so quickly that it was like it had never been there. Her burn scars shifted, flattening out, but the fury Sasuke always felt at seeing them refused to make itself known. "Or his version of it. About the massacre."

He stood up, trying to look older, wiser, less confused and angry, and failed miserably. Even with his mother seated, he couldn't delude himself as to the gap between them. "He told me to ask you."

Mikoto considered him, and then Obito, and then Sasuke again. The comfortable silence of his house dragged itself out into something dreadful. She stood up, closing her eyes.

"We should have this conversation somewhere else," she said. Sasuke's heart broke. He'd still been in denial, deep down.

"That's not what you were supposed to say," he said, feeling his whole face twitch. Was he going to cry? Twice in one day? Was he that pathetic? "You were supposed to say-"

"Whatever he told you, it was a lie?" Mikoto asked gently. Sasuke couldn't even nod. "Let's go, both of you. I figured this would happen someday."

She led them out of the house, to the very edges of the Uchiha's territory. Through the forests, which grew thicker and darker. No one had maintained these woods in decades, and once you were a hundred feet into them, it felt as though you were a hundred miles away from civilization.

None of them said anything for the duration of the journey. After several minutes, they arrived at their destination.

Sasuke recognized it; this was Nakano Shrine, a small building with two wings and a tall red torii gate washed out from years of neglect at the entrance. It was the southernmost property belonging to the Uchiha, and had never been used as long as he remembered. There were other shrines in the compound for people to think of their family, ancestors, and whatever spirits they deemed worthy of paying respect to, and after the massacre there hadn't been enough people to bother using the more distant buildings.

"Inside," his mother gestured, sliding open one of the front doors. She waited until Obito and Sasuke were in and then slipped it shut behind them. The moment it closed, Sasuke felt a twinge. Just like the safehouse in Waterfall, there was a barrier around this shrine, though it wasn't nearly as strong.

"Mikoto-" Obito said, and she shushed him, gesturing to the east wing of the shrine.

"The seventh mat," she said. Obito quirked an eyebrow. There were dozens of mats lining the shrine, facing towards graves, idols, and empty space. "Lift it up for me, would you?"

Obito hesitated, and Sasuke didn't have any patience. He ran ahead, kicking the heavy mat aside. It slammed into the wall with a dusty thump. Instead of more scuffed hardwood below it, there was a heavy stone slab, as dark as obsidian. Sasuke tapped it with his foot; it felt like stainless steel, but looked like nothing he'd ever seen before. There was a three-tomoe Sharingan carved into the center.

"Stand back," Mikoto said. She began running through hand-seals with slow deliberation. Ten, fifteen, twenty, more seals than Sasuke had ever seen for a single jutsu. When she finished the twenty-third, there was a pop, a crackle of ozone: the slab lifted up in defiance of gravity, settling on its side and staying upright.

A barrier had broken, Sasuke thought. The slab was only the obvious part of it. Below the dark stone, there was a staircase descending into a inky black that even his Sharingan couldn't pierce.

"Down," Mikoto said matter of factly, leading the way down the stairs. There were about seventy of them, and they were steep; when they came to an end, depositing them into a small flat room, Sasuke was sure they'd gone down about forty feet. His mother snapped her fingers, and the room lit up, torches that were fueled by chakra instead of oil around the perimeter springing to life.

He and Obito looked around, taking in the mysterious basement. Far above them, the stone seal slammed shut. Sasuke felt the hair on his neck stand up as the powerful chakra barrier snapped back into place. The room was larger than he'd first thought; about thirty feet wide and fifty long, covered in mats and the odd chair. At the end of it was a stone tablet set on a pedestal.

"Impressive," Obito said. "I couldn't find this place even with the Kamui."

"This place was created by Madara Uchiha," Mikoto said, walking forward and taking a seat in the center of the room. "There's nowhere in the village that's more secure."

She looked at them and gave a patient gesture, waiting for them to sit as well. Obito did, but Sasuke couldn't bring himself to. He stared at the two adults, mute. Now that he was here, he had no idea what to say.

"So," Mikoto eventually said when it became clear he was struck dumb. "What did Itachi tell you?"

"He…" Sasuke faltered. It had been so easy to be angry and determined with Obito, but this was his mother looking at him so sincerely as she waited for his answer. All his courage dried up, and he was left with a sore throat and tired eyes. Surely she already knew, right? Why else would they have come down here, a place so secret even Obito didn't know about it?

"He told Sasuke that this was a clan of traitors," Obito said. He didn't ask for permission, but Sasuke could see he was cursed with the same curiosity and dread. He and Obito had been feeling the same, they thought. His teacher was just better at hiding it. "That you and Fugaku and the rest of the leadership, had been planning a coup, intending to supplant the Hokage."

He sat back. "So please, Mikoto. Tell us he was lying."

Sasuke's mother frowned, took a deep breath. Paused. Shook her head.

' _No.'_

"He put it in an unfortunate way," she decided.

"You're not denying it?" Sasuke muttered. Something snapped. "It's _unfortunate_?"

"Mikoto…" Obito said. "You're not serious, right?"

"No, she's serious," Sasuke bit out before his mother could respond. "Look at her." He started pacing. "You were planning a _coup_ , and it made Itachi decide to _kill you_ , and that's _unfortunate_?"

"Do you want to know what happened, or do you want to be indignant?" Mikoto asked. How could she be so calm? His mother has always kept her composure, but this was something else. Sasuke's hands curled into fists. "I doubt Itachi told you the whole story."

"If you won't deny the most important part, what's the point of the rest?!" Sasuke shouted, coming to a stop. "Did you think we'd sympathize with you?!" He pointed at her, his finger shaking. "You've been thinking this would happen for a while; did you fantasize that I'd be on your side? Is that why you kept telling me Itachi was after my eyes?! Hoping I wouldn't question him?! That I'd just accept that my brother was insane?!" He laughed. "No point in thinking about it anymore! That would have been nice for you!"

"Sasuke," Mikoto said with a shake of her head. "I was not trying to manipulate you. We didn't tell you…" She paused. "Or you, Obito, we didn't tell either of you the truth to protect you."

"The same thing that Itachi said…" Obito said. "If anyone found out, we'd all be under suspicion."

"Exactly," Mikoto implored, spreading her hands. Sasuke shook, not understanding why Obito was as calm as his mother. It was like they were discussing training instead of treason.

"And Sasuke, we suspected that Itachi knew about our plan from what he said while he murdered your father." Mikoto said it so matter of factly that Sasuke almost didn't notice her flinch. "But that motive alone never matched up with his actions." His mother's voice was calm and melodic, and Sasuke couldn't help but listen as she spoke, desperate for some clarity.

"Itachi murdered several Uchiha that night that were not sympathetic to the 'coup,' as you'd call it." Mikoto drummed her fingers against the mat, lost in the past. "Including Shisui. He stole one of Shisui's eyes, leaving only one for Obito. And Sasuke, though you probably don't remember this, he attempted to use his Tsukuyomi on you. You were so young… if the Yondaime had not saved you, who knows what would have happened."

She sat up, frowning. "He had already achieved his Mangekyo before the massacre, but did not tell us, and no one close to him had died to our knowledge. I concluded long ago that there were additional motivations that made your brother suspect. He was your age, Sasuke. When you're that young, things can't be that simple."

Her calm look slipped away for the first time and revealed gut-wrenching sorrow. "That was why I told you what I did. I'm sorry."

Sasuke didn't have anything to say; he didn't know if he could trust a word of it. Once more, Obito stepped into the gap.

"So Shisui was against your scheme?" he said mildly, and Mikoto laughed.

"Of course," she said. "However, your brother was brought in early on because of his Mangekyo."

"But I wasn't. And Shisui was the picture of loyalty," Obito said thoughtfully. "You couldn't have believed he'd go along with whatever you were planning."

"To explain that, perhaps I should explain the 'scheme,' as you called it," Mikoto said with a somber look. "If you don't mind."

Obito nodded, and looked at Sasuke. He still didn't know what to do, so he nodded in turn. Maybe knowing his mother's truth as well would help him understand his brother's. Maybe then he'd feel less lost.

"It started with money," Mikoto said, settling in, "but it became much more than that. And ironically, it was all born from Konoha's prosperity."

"It's no secret that the Leaf has enjoyed a period of never before seen peace and wealth. That started just before you were born, Sasuke, so you've never known anything else. The Third War pitted the Land of Fire against the world, and in the end, we came out on top. That was thanks in part to the Uchiha, of course; Shisui and Fugaku, and of course you Obito, you were just some of the legendary shinobi whose accomplishments helped Konoha dictate the terms of trade and borders that put us in such a strong position. But the Uchiha have always been pigeonholed, ever since they were given the honor of the duty of military police by the Nidaime."

A bitter smile.

"So, despite those incredible accomplishments the name of the Uchiha did not grow more famous, in or out of the village. Fugaku was not the man who had almost single-handedly won the Battle of Ten Rivers: he was still just the head of the KMPF. When it came time to pick the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze was picked over two of the Sandaime's own students and my own husband. A good choice, to be sure, but not the one the clan wanted or expected."

"Not this again…" Obito muttered, and Mikoto frowned.

"It's important," she said softly. "Don't you think it's strange that of the four Hokage, two were the Senju's leaders, and then their student, and then their student's student? The Uchiha joined with the Senju to create Konoha, and their achievements have always been just as incredible." She smiled. "Perhaps moreso, since we remain where they have died out. Isn't it interesting then, that there has never been an Uchiha Hokage?"

"So the clan made the same mistake that Madara did all those years ago," Obito sneered as Sasuke struggled to keep up. For some reason he hadn't expected this kind of lecture. "Throwing away their loyalty because they were dissatisfied with the power they already had."

"No," Mikoto said. "As with most things, Madara had the right idea, but he was a fool. His hatred of the Senju blinded him to what he could have achieved even as Hashirama's right hand man. We did not hate the village, didn't even really resent it. We just wanted to make it better, in a way that the Yondaime never could. Konoha was and is the most prosperous Hidden Village in the world, and Minato Namikaze was content to maintain that status quo."

"What we wanted to do was seize the advantage."

"In peacetime, as usual, the budget of the military police swelled. With less enemies without, the village focused its efforts within, and gave us the wealth and influence to accomplish its vision. Before, we had always taken this without question, but now, it seemed silly. Money thrown after money, when we already had more than enough. The Hokage and the village wanted us to accomplish more, but we'd reached the limit of our mandate. There were no more laws that could be tightened up, no point in training more officers. We were too good at our job to continue on our current path."

"So naturally, Fugaku and I looked at expanding that mandate."

"There was nothing in Konoha's history to draw from for inspiration. What we wanted to do wasn't in the playbook, as it were. So sure we could do more than maintain a holding pattern, we looked outwards beyond the village for inspiration. And we found it…"

Mikoto grimaced. "In the Nation of Rain."

Sasuke twitched.

' _It always comes back to Rain.'_

"Rain was a minor village, but it contained a small and powerful cadre of ninja. That small group expanded its influence and recruitment tools and, with several charismatic leaders, took from the country several of the duties that fell to the Daimyo to enforce; its borders, its laws outside of the village, the very sovereignty that defined it. It transformed it into a nation, and swelled in power and prestige, gobbling up everyone willing to join it and transforming from a minor village into something that the Five Great Villages had no choice but to pay attention to."

Mikoto smiled. Itachi's sly look had come from her, not their dour father. "Does any of that sound familiar?"

"So…" Sasuke said quietly. "You wanted to do the same."

"We did not want to depose the Daimyo," Mikoto said. "Or the Hokage, for that matter. That was too dramatic, and would draw retribution without a doubt. But we did want to replace the Hokage with someone who would stand up to the Daimyo: someone who would be bold enough to expand the duties of the military police beyond the walls of Konoha. With the Land of Fire under our aegis, everyone would prosper. The country would grow safer, the village more respected, and the Uchiha more powerful. Everyone would have won."

"You sound like you really believed this would have worked," Obito noted, and Mikoto nodded. "But it's absurd. There were less than three hundred military police, even before Itachi killed so many. They couldn't possibly have covered the whole country."

"It's absurd to think that we could have replaced all of Fire's law enforcement," Mikoto laughed. "But that was never the plan; we simply wanted the authority to act alongside them. Outside of Konoha, Uchiha are just glorified guard dogs; they have no legal authority. If that had changed, our clan would finally have the power it had earned. We would have been a national organization at the right hand of the Daimyo; the influence Konoha could have accrued was unthinkable."

"And in that language..." Obito said. "If Shisui had believed you really were doing it for Konoha…" He mulled that, apparently considering what his brother was really capable of.

"What's the difference between deposing and replacing the Hokage? It's semantics," Sasuke asked, shaking his head. He didn't know or care anything about law enforcement. He'd never been interested in joining the KMPF.

"How politely you ask, that's all," his mother said. "In the end, none of this could happen until Fugaku became Hokage. To accomplish that, there were a couple methods available to us. All of them hinged on the Mangekyo available to the clan. One was Shisui using his Kotoamatsuki to force Minato to step down-"

"He'd never," Obito grunted.

"You're right," Mikoto nodded. "But that left our less elegant options, and Shisui knew that. I think he was probably going down a similar path to Itachi's purported one, in the end; feeling like he had to decide between us and the village."

"And he never told me?" Obito asked. Mikoto frowned.

"I couldn't claim to know why. Perhaps he was worried you'd be assassinated. The military police knew it was playing with fire, and it knew your weaknesses before you took your brother's eye. It's not inconceivable."

"What were the other options?" Sasuke asked. Something clicked. "They were what Itachi knew, weren't they. He told me that you and father were going to go after Naruto's mom. That you were going to take the Kyuubi from her to defeat the Hokage."

Mikoto bit her lip. "Your brother could only ever see the worst in people. Perhaps that's what made him such an incredible ninja. Kushina was and is one of my closest friends. Killing her was never part of the equation."

She shifted, her head dropping a little. "But the Beast inside her… Fugaku's Mangekyo could control it. He had the strength of will, and the experience. He'd faced a Tailed Beast before; he was confident."

"So you would have turned Kushina into a slave." Obito's voice was a knife. "A bargaining chip to force sensei to back down."

Silence for five, ten, fifteen seconds. Sasuke stared at his mother, eyes growing narrower. He could feel his heart beating in his chest, crushed by the lack of sound, her stillness.

"Yes," she eventually said, so quietly that they had to strain to hear. "She is a Jinchuriki; it was always her job to serve the village at all costs. If that meant being used as a bargaining chip against her husband… that was just part of her duty."

Obito's hand shot out and he seized Mikoto by the collar, dragging her forward. His eyes were wide, Mangekyo active.

"Hey-!" Sasuke said. His sensei glanced at him, and he froze. The man looked inhuman.

"It would have been a pleasant dream for her," Mikoto said, fearlessly staring into Obito's eyes. "She wouldn't have known anything else."

Obito seethed, his grip tightening.

"You don't regret it," he spat, actually spat, and Mikoto didn't flinch as his spit landed on her burned cheek. "Even after losing half the clan, your husband, your damn face, you don't look back on it with anything but some _sad satisfaction_."

"Would you prefer I cry?" Mikoto asked. Her composure refused to crack. Her hands were still held in her lap, and despite Obito dragging her forward her posture was still perfect. "Wail about how unfair it was? How much I miss my husband, my son, your brother, all the others that died? We are Konoha's greatest clan. It was always our duty to make it as strong as possible. This was the best way."

"You said that Madara was the fool, but from where I stand you're the real idiots," Obito growled. "You were so sure that sensei wouldn't agree with your plan. Were you really so greedy for an Uchiha to be Hokage? Fugaku, Shisui, or even Itachi, their time would have come-!"

"In years," Mikoto said steadfastly, "when the opportunity for Konoha to truly crush all the other villages would be long gone. Minato is happy to kill without thought, but he has no stomach for changing the world. You call it patience, I call it missing the window. If you stand still in a fight, you are not patient, you are waiting to be stabbed."

She pursed her lips. "And note that you didn't list your name there, Obito. You were our greatest hope for Hokage. You were strong. You were famous. The prize student of the Yondaime, the most powerful Mangekyo ever recorded. If you had stepped up, even asked your teacher, no one would have questioned you."

She started reaching up with one hand.

" _But you were_ _too weak to recognize the opportunity._ "

Obito flinched, and Mikoto gently pried his hand from her collar. "Your failure, your lack of confidence, was one of the main factors that sent the clan down this path. But now, none of that matters. Whether Itachi assumed the worst and decided only he could be trusted to solve the problem his family had become or due to some other motivation, the result was the same. We wanted to empower Konoha, and in return he slaughtered us. That is why I can no longer call him Sasuke's brother."

She looked at him with a grimace. "No son of mine could have been so _stupid._ "

Obito pushed her away with a disgusted look, and Mikoto almost toppled onto her back, barely catching herself with one hand. "You can deny it if you want, but you would be the fool," she said. "Hate me if you will for having the strength to bring Konoha to the top, but this will always be the Uchiha's fate." She stabbed out at the stone slab at the end of the room. "It's all there, our history and our destiny! If you turn away from that, you don't belong in this clan!"

"I have nothing to say to you," Obito snarled. His arm shot out towards Sasuke. "Sasuke. We're leaving."

Sasuke hesitated, looking between his sensei and his mother. His eyes wandered towards the stone slab at the back of the room. What could be on it that could make his mother say something so absolute?

" _Now_ ," Obito said, and Sasuke resolved to settle it later. His blood was pounding through his head, deafening him. Everything had turned out so much worse than he'd thought. He stepped forward and took Obito's hand.

The hidden room beneath Nakano Shrine whirled away, and they were suddenly alone within the Kamui.

Obito looked around at his world and sighed. Sasuke looked up at him, his whole body shaking with unspent adrenaline. Obito glanced down at him, and closed his eyes.

"Fuck."

###

**AN: Had an uncomfortable conversation with your family lately?**

**Happy New Year!**


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